


The Chimera

by DrWhoFan13



Category: Ben 10 Series, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:28:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 36,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28230912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrWhoFan13/pseuds/DrWhoFan13
Summary: A man from our universe arrives with nothing but pajamas and a really advanced watch. Under the guidance of senior heroes and the friendships made with fellow sidekicks, he shall rise to become The Chimera. SI. Crossposted on FFN.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	1. Origins

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there, and welcome to The Chimera. This is my first go at publishing Fanfiction on the internet, so be a bit nice to me. Just for sanity’s sake, I don’t own anything.

**???**

**??? 00:16 EDT**

_ Fuck. _ What happened? Last thing I remembered, I was home sleeping and now I’m somewhere completely different with nothing but my pajamas on and one very familiar looking wristwatch. Y’know what, I’m just going to save the questions for later, and right now figuring out where I am takes priority though I have to admit, this wristwatch looks a lot like the Omnitrix from Omniverse when I think about it, but the whites are replaced with black. Huh. Let’s see if it works! After all, I did get thrown away from home for a random reason and attaching a out of production children’s toy to a random guy’s wrist sounds stupid, so it being the actual Omnitrix makes more sense that it being an off the shelf toy. 

As I touch the faceplace a green ring with 5 faces pops up. I scroll through them until I see the closest thing I’m looking for: a roughly humanoid face with a wolverine like mask attached to it. I remove my hand from the faceplate, and a thin cylinder with glowing green lines coming out of an hourglass symbol located at the top suddenly shoots out as the faceplate recedes back a bit. Without hesitation, I slam the core down and I feel lots of changes happening. A sudden burst in height, excessive growth of blue fur, an organic face mask made of fur just appearing around my now solid green eyes and massive yet rapid alterations in my DNA and internal organs happens in less time than I can register. Once I process that it worked, I shout out “Fasttrack!” before going “Nononono, doesn’t fit me. Maybe Fastcat?” before reaffirming it as the form’s name with a loud “ **Fastcat** !”. I head off into the night with no plans of stopping, wondering where I was before it hit me: A sign with the words ‘Welcome to Gotham City, Connecticut! Est. 1635 Population: 9,342,681’ written on it. 

One glance sends me into a panic as everything I knew about everything goes out the window, if it didn’t already. I hear myself go “Calm down, maybe the Justice League is founded and I can ask them to help me find my reality!” before realizing that I should get a move on if I want to reach the city unless I want the Omnitrix time out in a few minutes and spend hours heading to the city by foot. 

Whilst running through the city, I form a plan in my head: Stop a few crimes in the city to get Batman’s attention. Once done, I explain myself and the Omnitrix to him barring the whole “you’re fictional to my universe” bit. Now all I have to do is to wait for a crime to happen. Just as soon as I finish that thought, a random woman calls out for help and I speed to see a mugging in progress. Well, it  _ is _ Gotham after all. In the space of a few seconds, I manage to knock out the fleeing mugger and return the purse to the woman before rushing off into the city for more crimes to stop.

**Gotham City**

**May 2nd, 2010 00:31 EDT**

And there goes the last of the charge. Shame, it was fun being able to go superfast. Now, let’s count the crimes prevented: I stopped 3 muggings and a robbery. Not bad, but the robbery could-- _ should- _ -have gone better. If only I was fast enough….

Putting away morbid thoughts for now, I move onto my current priority: finding somewhere to head for the night and some food to eat. Which brings me to my next questions: How will I get a place to stay and some food for only $398.37? Well, since I’m homeless, I could go to a homeless shelter. Alternatively, I could head to foster care, but that would raise lots of problems as I’m going to be sneaking out, not to mention that there are high odds that I’ll end up in an abusive home. Before I could ponder more on the problems, I feel a sharp throb of pain in the back of the skull before I fall asleep.

**Batcave?**

**May 4th, 2010 00:45 EDT**

I wake up blindfolded and handcuffed in an unknown room. If I had to guess, I’m currently in one of the Batcave’s interrogation rooms.

“Sir, is everything alright? Master Robin has been asleep for three hours, yet here you are burning the midnight oil.” A british voice-presumably Alfred-called out. 

“I’m afraid not. I just witnessed an unidentified being--possibly extraterrestrial--transform into the man currently in the holding cells. Here’s the problem: I ran a facial recogniction search and he doesn’t show up on any database whatsoever. No social media posts, no military records, not even a birth certificate. It’s almost as if this man just suddenly appeared out of the blue one day. And before you ask, I’m doing a genetic scan on him right now to make sure there’s nothing out of the unusal for our…  _ esteemed _ guest.” A gruffier voice, most likely Batman, called out before continuing with “How are the others responding?”.

“The others have responded that they will be there before 1 AM and have requested that you stop calling on them at ungodly hours of the night.” Just as soon as the sentence is finished, a distant computerized female voice calls out “01-Superman. 03-Wonder Woman. 05-Green Lantern. 07-Martian Manhunter.” 

“So, what’s going on that you require all of us to help you? Last I checked, you never called in for League assistance in Gotham once and now you’re requesting our help with interrogating a person in possession of exotic technology?” A somewhat calmer voice calls out--Superman.

“I do have reasons to believe that the aforementioned technology is extraterrestrial and possibly more advanced than what the Guardians are capable of making.” 

“I’ll be the judge of that!” A voice full of pride calls out-Green Lantern II, Hal Jordan only for a Carl Lumby-esque voice, Martian Manhunter, restrains him by going; “Calm yourself, Lantern. Let us meet the person who holds Batman’s attention before we jump to hasty conclusions.” 

After a few seconds of agonzing silence, I hear the door unlock and five figures clad walk in, much to my joy. Wonder Woman goes “Hello there. My name is Diana. Do I have the permission to know yours?”

There’s something about Wonder Woman asking for your name to make you stop and pause for a few seconds. Especially if you don’t remember yours for some reason. Seeing no other reasonable course of action, I reply with “Well, I can’t remember my actual name for some reason, so call me Ezekiel for now. Zeke for short.” 

“Like the prophet?”

“Nope. Just the first thing that came into my mind.”

“Well then, Ezekiel, how did you turn back from being that blue-furred creature?”

“My time limit ran out.”

“Time limit?”

“Well, you see, I possess this incredibly advanced piece of technology known as the Omnitrix. And before you ask, I’m not sure how I got it either. I was asleep at the time.”

The always paranoid voice of Batman goes “So, what you’re saying is that you suddenly woke up with the Omnitrix on your person?”

“Pretty much. Go ahead and wrap the Lasso of Truth around me if you don’t believe me.” To which Diana responds with “I already did.”

“Well, as you can see, I can’t.”

“Apologies, I’ll get the blindfold off.”

Once Diana does so, I see many things. I’m in a stark white room with the only furniture being two metal chairs and a table. The leaguers present look more or less as to what I imagine them in the comics: Superman in his underwearless red-and-blue onesie with a red cape and belt, Wonder Woman in her american styled greek body armor and gold tiara with red star, Batman in his black and gray body armor and caped cowl, Green Lantern in the traditional Lantern Uniform with a green and white domino mask and Martian Manhunter in a full body ensemble with red X on a blue and black uniform with cape--what’s with the capes?

Diana gets me back on topic with “I imagine you have a great many questions based on your facial expressions.”

“So do you.”

“So, let’s begin. What do you know about yourself?” 

And so I respond with everything I can: my DOB, state of origin, financial information, family history, educational history, et cetera. While I do so, Batman inputs everything into a wrist-mounted computer. A few minutes after he finished inputting the info, he responds with “I’m sorry, but there is nobody with the specific information you mentioned.”

“I figured so. I did just arrive in this universe after all.” 

To say that shocked everybody would be both an understatement and a perfect summary of what happened. I can’t describe it beyond that. As soon as Superman regains his composure, he goes “Are you sure?” 

“Yep.”

“How?” Martian Manhunter calls out

“I don’t know!”

“Enough about you, let’s talk about the Omnitrix. What do you know about it?” 

“It was created by this Galvan scientist known as Azmuth who was a supergenius among supergeniuses. He wanted to bring peace to his universe--I’m from a different  _ different _ universe--and to show his girlfriend that he matured after seeing the devastation his previous greatest invention caused. Unfortunately, he did it in the most counterproductive way possible by creating a device that allows the user to turn into over a million species so that its user could step into another species’s shoes. Add to the fact that the species included have powers that range from ‘worse than baseline human’ to ‘nigh-omnipotent at the cost of debating with fellow personalities’, and everybody in the galaxy wanted it to be used as a weapon. He sent it to his Earth to prevent that happening where a ten year old found it and became his universe’s greatest hero after defeating universe ending threats over the course of six years.”

Batman, who was stoic as always, responds with “Well then. We’ll have to remove the Omnitrix from you in order to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.” 

“You can’t do that!”

Green Lantern responds with a smug sounding “We’re the Justice League. We can do anything.”

“No, I mean you literally can’t. It’s bonded to my DNA, works only for me and it only comes off if I use the decoupling code, which I don’t know and even if I did know it, I wouldn’t give it to you without a fight, however brief and onesided it is.” God, I really hope they don’t press me on how I know that.

What happens next is the most intense staredown I ever had in my life until Superman defuses the situation by responding with “Well I for one recommend that we keep an eye on him to see if he’s trustworthy.” Sounds of agreement from the fellow leaguers fill the room. Once the situation is cleared up, Wonder Woman asks me “Is there anything else you would like to tell us?”

Bracing myself for the response as I lose control of my mouth, I reply with “In my universe, you’re depicted as fictional beings due to what I presume is weird multiversial logic. Same for the Omnitrix. And the knowledge included involves all of your secret identities.”

What happens next is stunned silence before I hear a harsh “Are you positive?” from Batman.

“Definitely,  _ Mr. Wayne _ .”

The look on Batman’s face was priceless before he calmed down and told me “You will have to spend at least one hour weekly reciting all of your knowledge to us. Am I clear?” 

“Crystal.” 

“We will continue this discussion later once we have all gotten a night’s rest. Until we are able to find your home reality, you will be made a sidekick of a member of the Justice League, effective once we decide upon said member. You will stay with me until we will provide you with a false identity and a residence with details supported by you. Unless you have any objections right now, that is our current course of action. Do you have any complaints to add?”

“Besides how chafing these cuffs are, none whatsoever.”

“Glad to hear it.” As soon as he says that, I see a smile form on his face for a brief second before he unlocks the cuffs and motions for me to follow him up the stone stairs of the Batcave. I wave goodbye to the soon to be fellow superheroes and they in turn wave back. 

“Alfred, take ‘Ezekiel’ to the guest room. He will be staying with us for the foreseeable future”

“Sir, are you sure that-”

“Yes, I am. He apparently knows the entirety of the League’s identities and I would like for him to remain under constant supervision.”

“But sir, he-”

“Is the blue-furred alien. If what he says is true, then he can turn into over one million aliens that make Superman as strong as me.”

“Well, I can only turn into 10 right now, and none of them are capable of going mano-a-mano with a Kryptonian with their powers alone.”

It’s at this point the Omnitrix pops out with two new icons: my face and what I assume is a martian’s true form before going out in a digitized version of my voice “ _ Uncataloged DNA recorded. Please identify the species of origin. _ ”

At the glances I get, I shoot them a look that was hopefully intrepreted as ‘I don’t know how this thing works beyond a small fraction of its capabilities’ before responding verbally with “Species are known as Kryptonian and Martian. To specify, Kryptonian is the one that looks like a human to the naked eye whereas the Martian is the species capable of limited self-biomolecular manipulation and telekinetic abilities.”

“ _ Understood. Would you like to update the DNA Scanner settings? _ ”

“Affirmative. Please notify me of the scanning of uncataloged DNA not in the Omnitrix and Scan only if I give verbal authorization.”

“ _ Settings Updated. Would you like to do anything else? _ ”

“How do I bring up the settings menu?”

“ _ Verbalize the phrase Omnitrix-Access Settings followed by the authorization code 1337 _ .”

“Thank you. That is all for now.” 

At that point, I hear Batman growl “Did you withhold the capabilities of the Omnitrix from us?”

“More like I never told you about them. Besides, even I’m not sure of the entirety of its functions.”

It’s at this point Alfred goes “Sir, let us take a break from now. I’m sure that he will inform you of his capabilities.”

“I will. I just need time to process things right now. By the way, what year is it? I know it’s a bit of an odd question, but I want to know given that it just became 2021 in my universe before I went to sleep and I woke up here.”

“The current date is May 4th, 2010.”

Bruce goes “I thought today was the third.”

“Sir, it is a quarter past 1 AM.”

“Well then, I think I’ll call it a night. I take it you prepared the guest room?”

“Along with a wide variety of clothes around the size of our esteemed guest here.”

“Take him to his room then, Alfred. Once Dick wakes up, I expect you to inform him of our guest. I don’t want a repeat of the last time we had a guest who came to the manor overnight and we didn’t bother to inform Dick about it. How is said guest, by the way?”

“He is still recovering from the broken leg, sir.”

I look dumbfounded before going “What about my room?”

“We are right outside of it, sir.”

Realizing that I focused more on the conversation than the changing scenery, I pause and take a look at the door, wondering if the maintenance of it costs more than the monthly earnings of my parents. It was made of a fine oak and stretched about a dozen feet from floor to roof. I open the door and I see a very large room about the size of my old apartment. In it, I see a bed that could reasonably hold a giant of a man, a dresser with some clothes around my size, a closet and a door that leads to what I presume is a bathroom. I head into the bathroom and I take a look in the mirror. Brown hair and eyes illustrate my face, with a beard and mustache. My face looks like it’s been smoothed out with no scars or pimples whatsoever. 

Without further prompting, I go ahead and sleep the night away.

**Wayne Manor**

**May 4th, 2010 10:35 EDT**

I wake up and the first thing I see is Alfred in his butler uniform. “Mister Doe, Master Bruce would like to request your presence down at the Cave.” 

“Alright, I’ll be down there. Can you make me French Toast and English Breakfast Tea?” 

“Of course, Sir.” 

**Batcave**

**May 4th, 2010 10:52 EDT**

After that delightful breakfast, I head down to the Batcave where I see Bruce in his traditional suit and tie that rich people wear. “Ah, Ezekiel, glad you’re here. I take it you had a good night’s rest?”

“The best I ever had.”

“Glad to hear it. Now, shall we begin with creating your documents?”

“Sure. Just as a head’s up, don’t give a driver’s license. I can’t drive.”

“You’re in your late teens and you can’t drive?”

“I didn’t really have a need to drive. No social life plus a thing back home really doesn’t give me motivation to drive.”

“Alright then.”

**Batcave**

**May 4th, 2010 11:27 EDT**

About an hour later, I was established as Ezekiel Arakelian, a 18 year old high school graduate who moved to Coast City in an attempt to break free from his home. Upon seeing the Coast City bit, I ask “Did Hal agree to be my supervisor?”

“Apparently so. He called dibs immediately after we left to the manor.”

“Let me guess: He wanted to keep an eye on me and the Omnitrix?”

“The Omnitrix and I. Also, yes.”

“Lovely. Do I have any cash?”

“About 1 million USD.”

“Well then, are there any Wayne Enterprises stock for sale? I’m going to need some method of income while I head to Coast City University for a degree.” 

“There are some available, but it will cost you about 2 thousand per stock.”

“I’ll take some then. Anything else?”

“Your first session with us will be tonight at 8 PM EDT. I expect you to be on time. Also, I would like a list of the capabilities of all your aliens, and I expect it to be updated whenever you unlock a new alien. Is that understood?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Good. Now, do you mind standing in the Zeta tube here? I need to scan your body before registering you as a guest in the Zeta directory.”

“Is this a feature you had installed specifically for this Zeta tube?”

“Yes. Why do you ask?

“Because the internet in my world knows you as a paranoaic who can defeat anybody given enough prep time.”

With an annoyed sigh, he mutters under his breath with “Why did I expect anything different?” before continuing with “Anyway, please step in the tube.”

I do so, and I see a green gridwire of lights scan me, moving from top to bottom before eventually fading away. Once it’s done, I hear “User Registered: Ezekiel Arakelian AO-3.”

“Quick questions before you Zeta me to Coast City: Will I get to be Hal’s sidekick? Also, will I get to design my costume and choose my codename? Will my codename be entered in lieu of my alias?”

“In order: You have to, Yes, Yes and Yes.”

“Glad to hear it, though I wish I was given a choice. I would’ve accepted it, but still.”

“I apologize for that, but I cannot let you go unsupervised if what you said was true.”

“I understand. Well then, I’d better be off. See you later.”

“Before you go, I have something to give you.” As I turn back to the batcave, I see Bruce holding a piece of paper with an address and keys. “Here. For your new home.”

“Thank you.” I say as I zeta out of the cave.

“You’re welcome”.

**Coast City, Oregon**

**May 4th, 2010 8:27 AM PDT**

Turns out, Gotham and by extension, Connecticut were in the Eastern Time Zone. This meant that I was out on the streets early in the morning with nothing to do. Fortunately, my moping is stopped by a robbery in progress zooming past me. With zero hesitation, as I needed something to vent, I dial up the Omnitrix and I scroll through the playlist looking for an alien capable of dealing and taking damage. Turns out that the starting playlist I have is on the “skill required side” instead of being directly useful, and those are the eight I can recall. Two faces are unfamiliar to me, so I can’t rely on my knowledge to know if they’re good, but the rest aren’t great for immediate unskilled combat, so I go for the stonefaced one. As I transform into him, I feel rocks forming around my body, which has become electricity. I become an 8’3’ giant, with long arms that stretch down to my heels. Blue energy makes up 58% of my body with the remaining 42% being rock. Spikes made of blue energy protrude out of my shoulders. A quick look confirms my odd reaction to the icon: I was a Fulmini, something I only know through the wiki and the one episode of the reboot I watched online. With no fucks to give, I rush into battle confident that my powers will help, calling out “ **Shockhenge** !” as I do so. 

As I rush to the car, I hear “Hey man, relax! Nobody, not even the Greenies are going to stop us!”

It’s at this point I go “You sure about that?”

“Yeah, I’m sure Walt! Now quit complainin’!”

“I didn’t say anything Wayne.”

“Then who did?”

“I did **!** ”

The two robbers stop their car and get out. One good look at them show two men--presumably twins--dressed up in cowboy uniforms. They even have the revolvers and hats to match.

“Now fellers”, I say in a mocking texan accent, “We can do this fast or slow. Fast means you surrender, slow means I beat you up. What’s your choice?”

“We’re gonna fight!”

“Slow it is then **.** ”

I immediately make an electrical force field by turning the air into plasma and wait until the bullets ricochet off of it. Then, once the two have wasted their ammo, I immediately tase them with what I assume is enough for a taser equivalent. Once I see that they’re unconscious, I check on them to make sure that they’re alive, which they are, much to my luck. 

“Well, you sure saved us some lives. Might I ask what your name is? We only get the second Green Lantern around here.”

I see a tall caucasian man with black hair in a blue coat and pants, white dress shirt and black tie. “You can call me Shockhenge for now, officer. It’s the form’s name, and I don’t have anything better as a cape name for now. Now, if I may ask, what’s your name? It’d be pretty rude of you to not introduce yourself.”

“Name’s Detective Gage. Nick Gage.”

“There’s a pun in there waiting to be used **.** ”

“Never heard  _ that  _ before. Now, what brings you to our city? And what do you mean by form?” Hmmm, what works as a good excuse? Maybe I tell them some of the truth. After all, the best lies have truth to them.

“I needed a place to stay. Green Lantern 2814-A-That’s the one who bothers with a secret identity-has agreed to supervise me so that I don’t cause trouble. As for the form thing, I can turn into aliens for a few minutes. ”

“Interesting. Are you going to follow us to the station or are you going to leave?” 

“I’m afraid I’m going to leave. I don’t have a uniform on my human form, and I don’t want to reveal my identity **.** ”

“I understand. I guess I’ll be seeing you around?”

“You will. Now, I better get going. I have a home to check out”.

With that said, I decide to summon a bolt of lightling to ride and do my best Silver Surfer impression on. I land on a building about a few meters away before I detransform due reaching my limit. Now, how do I get down?

**Casa De Ezekiel**

**May 4th, 2010 9:30 PDT**

I really like the home. Fully furnished in a way that makes me proud, with a kitchen and everything. It’s about 1,780 square feet and a short walk to the Zeta tube (which would have been nice to know) and the downtown area so that I could go ahead and buy anything I want. Until then, let’s get to work. 

**Casa De Ezekiel**

**May 5th, 2010 17:16 PDT**

After much time spent on practicing cooking and checking up the recent history (1940s-now) and popular culture, I’m supposed to have my first training session right about now. As if on cue, a green light shines in the backyard, the backdoor unlocks and I see a brunette haired, 5”8’ Hal Jordan wearing his badass pilot’s coat. “Hey there Zeke. I just want to say I’m sorry about getting off the wrong foot during our first meeting, but hearing about something that puts the Power Rings to shame really makes one surprised. I know I shouldn’t have acted the way I did, but I did and I hope you will forgive me.”

“I forgive you.”

“Oh, thank god. I didn’t really know what to say.”

“I understand. I’m not that great at socialization.”

“You’re doing just fine though.”

“I suck at small talk.”

“Huh. Glad to know. Anyway, let’s get to your training.”

“I don’t know why, but I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Didn’t know you were an oracle.”

“It was a lucky guess.”

**Outskirts of Coast City**

**May 5th, 2010 17:24 PDT**

So, turns out flight by lantern ring is a bit odd. It’s like flying in a bubble that can’t be burst, except there’s a pilot and the bubble is green. The training area is nice. It’s a large field with forest all around. In the middle of the field, I see John Stewart in his.. Uniform? Costume? He eyes at me and says “So, you’re the guy Hal told me about. I doubt his claims, but Batman backing him up made me interested in you enough to help Hal in your training.” 

“Glad to hear it. So, what do you know about me?”

“That you have 12 forms, 4 of which are known so far: a speedster almost as fast as the Flash, a energy manipulator, a Kryptonian, and a martian. The source of this capability is the Omnitrix, a device with technologies that were thought impossible by many species. What I don’t know is any fighting experience you have prior to starting your career if you have any.”

“I’ll be honest with you, I have none. Never really came up.”

“Alright then, training just got worse.”

“..How bad is it now?”

“Lots of hand to hand combat combined with brutal training to maximize the potential of you, your forms and the Omnitrix, not to mention you are expected to recite history from the 1930s and beyond during said training. Once you get a new form, you are expected to spend some time with me to master it. This will break you enough for you to rebuild yourself mentally and physically. In short, it will be hell on earth.”

“Oh god.”

**Casa de Ezekiel**

**June 15th, 2010 15:00 PDT**

I get a call through the Omnitrix communicator (which is something I learned during training). I pick up and I hear John say that due to the results of an arrival of new prisoners on Oa and Guy Gardener’s presence, he and Hal won’t be able for the next few days, so they’re giving me a break on training and that they’re counting today as one of those days. 

That was good news, as the training was brutal. 4 hours per day; 2 spent on alien practice and the other 2 spent on improving my hand to hand with the only breaks being for water and bathroom left me exhausted. Hell, when I was timed out during alien time, I was still expected to go over the functions of the Omnitrix. All in all, I pushed myself harder than I ever did before in my life and left me asking for what was John inspired by. “It was based off the official Green Lantern training sessions with a touch of Marine Corps training” was his response and that was when I understood everything.

A  _ ding! _ from the stove ended my train of thought, and I pull out my Lasanga shells, essentially tacos in pasta shells. You may be wondering, why would I cook such a thing. Well today, I’m having a guest over for lunch. J’onn had recently discovered that one of his hundreds of nieces and nephews sneaked into his spaceship and after discussion with her parents, decided to take her under his wing as his protege. He had earlier asked me if I could help her get accustomed to Earth, and I volunteered. All in all, I felt interested enough about it, but I also felt something that made me ask what her name is. Turns out it’s M'gann M’orzz aka Miss Martian. Upon seeing the look of ‘metareflection’ on me, he asked me why the name was important and I told him about the fact that M'gann is a White Martian pretending to be a Green. Once he heard about this, I was informed to not touch the topic at all due to her issues with it. I told him that he has my trust with these sorts of things.

Opening the door, I see a 5”6’ redheaded caucasian woman with freckles wearing a white t-shirt beneath a red crop top sweater with short sleeves, knee high socks, brown shoes, a red skirt and blue headband. She looks at me and goes “Hello there, I’m M’gann M’orzz, but you can call me M’gann.” 

“Well M’gann, my name is Ezekiel. Please come in, I wouldn’t want you to get cold from standing outside. That is, if you can get cold.” 

“O-of course.” She walks in and goes “Wow, your house is particularly large.”

“Not really, it’s average sized for the state.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“How do you pay for all this?”

“A well-rounded stock portfolio, my ‘inheritance’ and some patents I doodled up for my startup company.”

In an amazed voice, she goes “You run a startup company?”

“Not really, it’s just a name and a few patents that will change the world once they get turned into actual physical objects. I plan on selling it to Wayne Enterprises or Kord Industries once I decide I can make enough money from the sale of it.”

“Why those two?”

“I trust them enough to do the right thing with it.”

“I see. And Lex Luthor?”

“I don’t trust him at all.”

“Why?”

“He’s been gunning after Superman and the League for years and got away with it without any proof for it.”

“How?”

“He’s rich and can afford good lawyers if he gets caught. But since he never leaves evidence that ties the assaults back to him, he doesn’t get caught.”

M’gann facepalms her head and goes “Hello Megan! He’s just like Cha’rnn O’zzm!” before muttering to herself “Knew I should have listened to Uncle J’onn’s briefings on Earth Supercriminals.”

I look quizically at her before going “Who’s Cha’rnn?”. The name sounds familiar to me for some reason.

“Oh, he’s a former Red Martian who was exiled for his experiments on his subjects. As punishment, he was locked into his default form and exiled to Earth.”

“Ah.” Knew it!  _ Didn’t he experiment on humans trying to create a human/martian hybrid back and succeeded doing so back in J’onn’s early days? _

_ No, I don’t think so. What are you talking-thinking, sorry- about? _

_ Jesus, M’gann! Please don’t go into people’s heads without their permission. Unless they’re criminals. Or J’onn tells you to. _

_ Sorry! _

_ It’s OK, but please make sure that you don’t do that again. I always wondered what telepathy felt like, so that’s why I’m being a bit nice about it. Besides, I’m pretty sure I’m the first human you met. _

_ You’re right. You are the first human I met, and I overstepped my bounds. Back on track, what did you say about Cha’rnn? _

_ I heard J’onn mention his name back when I was going over a few things with the League this past Sunday. He seemed a bit concerned about it. _

_ Any martian would be.  _

_ Anyway, care to have dinner? It finished before you rang the doorbell. _

_ Sure! _

We spend the next few minutes just eating our food and talking via telepathy when I ‘hear’  _ So Ezekiel, can I ask you a question? _

_ Sure, go ahead. _

_ What are your thoughts on your ‘stay’ here?  _

I frown and go  _ What do you mean? _

_ I peeked into your memories a bit and found your first meeting with members of the League. I got curious, so I decided to look into the entire thing.  _

I sigh a bit and say “M’gann, what did I say?” 

“Don’t peek into other people's minds without permission?”

“Exactly. What you did was a breach of privacy of the greatest extent. I’m OK with you knowing, as I was going to tell others regardless. Just don’t tell anybody. It’s knowledge that would make me targeted by everybody.”

“I understand. Who else knows?”

“The founding members of the League, Green Lantern John Stewart, Batman’s Mission Control and Black Canary. Probably Robin as well.”

“Why probably?”

“He seems the mischievous type.”

“I see.”

“Anyways, once we’re done resting, want to go on patrol?”

“Isn’t that against what Uncle J’onn says is allowed?”

“He said that the only thing I’m not allowed to do is to not bring up your biggest secret. And yes, I know what it is.”

She stops eating from her plate and looks scared for a bit before going angry and mutters in the most angriest tone a woman with her voice can “If you tell anyone, I’ll end you. _ Am I clear? _ ”

Momentalirly taken aback, I go “Yes!” and she goes back into happy M’gann mode and smiles, much to my concern at how easily it can be to rile her up. Really hope that the villains doing so would take precautions for it. My thoughts done, I sat down on the couch with M’gann for a short rest before heroing.

**1st Coast City Bank**

**June 15, 2010 16:16 PDT**

_ Alright, Miss Martian. What do we do when we’re surrounded by enemies? _

_ I don’t know, what? _

_ Take down the most dangerous ones first. _

So, M’gann and I are on patrol, wearing our costumes. I decided on a dark green jacket. A black long sleeved tshirt with a neon green hourglass logo painted on it covers my body, with an Invincible style cowl attached to said shirt to cover my face. In addition, I’m wearing blue exercise pants and black shoes, a pair completely seperate to the ones I wear in civilian life. The Omnitrix is on the left hand and the costume itself has Dragonskin armor weaved into it, an upgrade I purchased myself from Paul Gambi. M’gann is wearing a shortsleeved whitetop with a red X across it as well as blue cape, skirt, gloves and ankle high boots with green skin to complete the illusion. 

Right now, we’re preventing a bank robbery by a guy calling himself Lamplighter, a supercriminial so ineffective, bank robbers hire  _ him _ despite his intelligence due to his powers effectively being a Wild Magic sorcerer from DND Fifth Edition (which is 4th edition in this universe). Said Lamplighter would probably be more effective as one of Batman’s rogues due to his staff and Victorian England theme. Before be burst in barging, Miss Martian and I decide to observe the situation from the outside

Upon seeing him and his employers threathen a Bank Teller, I nod to M’gann, who plucks the staff from his hands via Telekinesis. I then decide to activate the Omnitrix and select my favorite form available. I feel my cells turning to nanotechnological equivalents with my mind being scattered all across my body instead of remaining in one place. My body turns to black metal with green stripes that focus onto my head. My chest is merely white metal, with a green stripe flowing through it. My four (formerly five) fingers have their fingerprints turned into invisible touchpads. My face is nothing more than a green circle that flashes when I talk and moves when I want to convey expression. When the transformation is done, I whisper “Upgrade” loudly in a voice that sounds like a very robotic version of my own. 

M’gann takes a look at me and goes “What does being Upgrade feel like?” 

“Like you’re one being, but you’re also trillions at the same time. And you just want to merge with Technology.”

“Huh. Didn’t think of it like that.”

“What did you think was going to happen?”

“That you would flip out from being organic to technology.”

“There are safeguards designed to teach me about my new form down to the instinctual level. In fact, when transformed my human instincts go out the window.”

“Huh. So, can you turn into a Martian?”

“Yes, but I’m not allowed to unless it’s needed. It was scary turning into him and I don’t want to scare you by doing so.”

“Why?”

“...Let’s not talk about it. Hand me the staff.”

She does so and goes “Alright, but you better tell me.”

I assimilate it into my body and go “No. No, I don’t think I will.”

“Was that a reference to something?”

“Yes, but the source material doesn’t exist here.” One of the side effects of the Justice Society was that it killed the superhero genre. As a result, comics became sci-fi oriented and still thriving. After a moment, I decide to walk up to the robbers. One of them (wearing a Jason Voorhees mask) goes “The hell are you?”

“I am the Chimera, and this form is called Upgrade.”

One of the others (who is the only one wearing a Austin Powers mask) “You’re dead now, punk!” and tries shooting me with a machine gun, only for me to use Lamplighter’s staff to turn it into feathers. 

“Well then, are you going to shoot me? You still have four more to go.”

The remaining four then try focusing all their fire on me, only to fail because they too had their guns turn into feathers. At this point, Lamplighter goes “How are you getting the same effect every time? When I do it, it’s randomized!”

“Because you weren’t using Alien technology whereas I am  _ made _ of it. Now, would you like to surrender?”

“Yes please.” As he says so, he kneels before me. However, one of the punks decides to go ahead and punch me, only to fail when I shoot my laser at him. He falls over, with a stunned expression on his face. The remaining ones decide to book it, only for them to immediately fall asleep due to Miss Martian’s interference. With that done, I go to one of the hostages and ask “Are you Okay?” once I finish untying her. With a quiet nod in the positive, she gets up and turns to go outside, but I stop her, saying “Look, I know you’re scared, but there are other people here as well. I understand that you want to run away and talk to the police, but unless you have somewhere to be, can you help? This could take a while.” What I hope would be a touching moment is ruined as she walks off. Well, it could be worse. It could’ve been- At that moment my thoughts changed track to the fact that I detransformed. What was a once formidable might of machinery became my human form. Well, better finish untying the hostages. 

**Casa de Ezekiel**

**June 15th, 2010 20:30 PDT**

Once M’gann and I arrived home in our civvies, I ask M’gann “So, how was your first night out as a superhero?”

She thinks for a moment before going “Not bad, but was it really that easy?” 

“Not always. The bank robbery was easy because their main muscle relied on technology and the fact that they didn’t prepare well enough. If they had bothered to prepare for Upgrade, they could have beaten me and forced me to switch forms, cutting down my time limit. Previous experience has shown me that crime is somewhat easier than supercrime, unless you’re talking about mob bosses which is an entirely different topic.” 

“How so?”

“More resources, greater tactical ability, more long term ambitions and having lots of people under their control means that they have to be outwitted rather than knocked out so that any arrests can succeed.” 

“Glad to know that.”

“So, M’gann, do you have any plans for the rest of your stay here, however long it may be?”

“Well, I’ll just follow your schedule until the 19th, where I have to head to Uncle J’onn for my official debut as his sidekick the day after.”

“I wish you luck on your first offical day out.”

She smiles and goes “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome.” 

**Ferris Aircraft Runway**

**July 4th, 2010 8:42 PDT**

After M’gann’s stay with me at my home, I decided to follow any news involving the Martian Manhunter. Sure enough, on the day after she debuted, the superhero fan sites exploded with interest in Miss Martian. The wednesday after, training resumed and it was brutal, but not to the same extent as before much to my relief. It wasn’t until the 27th that I found out that next week, I’m going to the Hall of Justice with the rest of the League’s sidekicks as the first step to being full-fledged members of the Justice League. Right now, it’s the day and I’m helping Hal fight Icicle Sr., a fifty something with white hair wearing an insulated tunic to protect himself from the use of his ice gun. He’s freezing the runway until he gets a billion dollars, and several people are already injured from the results. I’m currently in the form of Xenowolf, a werewolfesque alien with black fur, a black mane, a large bushy tail and three claws on all hands and feet. The skin itself is grey, and I’m wearing a black jumpsuit with a green stripe down the middle with the Omnitrix symbol on a near-invisible belt. Green Lantern turns and looks at me, smirks and goes “So, are you happy that today’s the day?”

I look at him and go “Give me a moment to fight this guy.” before unleashing a sonic howl at Icicle Sr. Said howl shatters all ice within the radius and stuns Icicle Sr. immediately. I instantly take advantage of the situation and claw at him using my claws, causing three claw wounds to appear on his skin. He growls “You bast-” before Green Lantern makes a boxing glove construct and hits him with it, knocking him unconscious. He then turns to look at me and smirks, saying “Well? Are you?” 

“Of course I am! Today’s the day!”

“Glad to hear it. This will be the making of you.”

Little did I know that Hal made the understatement of the century.


	2. Down Under

**Washington DC**

**July 4th 2010 13:30 EDT**

So there I was outside of the Hall Of Justice. It really looked like it came straight from the comic: It was massive, about as tall as a five story building. The entrance and a glass dome was right under a marble arch with the words ‘Hall Of Justice’ written on said arc. There was a marble pillar to each side of the building, one to the left and one to the right of where the doors were, and two more at each end of the building. Hal was right next to me and smiled before going “So, what do you think?”

“I think that we arrived way too early. For god’s sake, we beat Batman and Robin and I’d never thought that was possible!”

It’s at this point I hear prepubesecent giggling before a short, roughly 5’6’ figure falls down from the trees with Batman and shouts out while moving his arms dramatically “Or maybe that’s what we wanted you to think!”

“We?”

“Alright fine, it was my idea.” It’s at this point said figure comes closer into the light and I see who it is: Robin. Wearing a red vest with an R in a black circle on the left side of his chest and a utility belt around his waist with three metal rectangles holding the vest shut. Black boots, gloves and leggings complete the ensemble with a cape that’s black on the outside and yellow on the inside. He walks up to me and says “Hey there, I’m Robin.” in a polite ‘I-want-to-be-friends’ way. Not wanting to appear rude, I go “I’m the Chimera.” to which he smirks and asks curiously “A bit theatrical, don’t you think?”

“We are superheroes, you know. Theatrics are practically a requirement for the job, as I’m sure you know.”

It’s at this point a much more disdainful voice speaks up with “Yeah, and I wish we’d stop with it. Who knows how effective we can be without making a show.” I turn around and I see Speedy and Green Arrow. Speedy himself is 5’8”, wearing a domino mask with a yellow version of Robin Hood’s hat with a red feather over his red hair, a red quiver filled with red arrows (heh), a red shirt that goes down a bit past the waist with the quiver’s yellow sash going around it, a utility belt yellow gloves, red pants and yellow boots completing the ensemble. Green Arrow himself is 5’11”, also wearing a domino mask and has a much more dignified ensemble of a green hood, a green shirt with a hood over a light green vest with light green gloves. Black pants and dark green boots cover his legs and his quiver is green with a black sash. The most noteworthy feature is his beard and mustache that he has in both identities. How has he not been outed yet?

Before I can respond, I get glomped by M’gann who asks me “Hello Chimera, how have you been?”

“I’ve been pretty good. And you, Miss Martian?”

“Pretty fine. Being a superhero is hard work, but it’s all worth it. Earth has treated me much better than Mars has.” She looks distantly uncomfortable for a moment before going back to her normal smile. Martian Manhunter turns to M’gann and reminds her “M’gann, let’s not look back to the past. Let’s look to the future.”

“Of course, Uncle J’onn.”

While I get off of M’gann, Speedy looks at her with what I hope is rudely expressed curiosity and asks harshly “Who are you?”

“Oh, I’m Martian Manhunter’s niece.”

“And I never heard of you because?”

“I just arrived here on Earth two months ago and my public debut was two weeks ago. I spent three days with Chimera at his home prior to it.”

“Righttttt.”

It’s at this point Green Arrow berates his partner with “Speedy, you’re being a bit rude. Apologize.”

Speedy growls “Fine. Sorry, Miss Martian. I was a bit paranoid, and that made me hostile towards you. Do you accept my apology?”

In the coldest tone I can possibly hear from M’gann, she replies coldly “Yes, but don’t expect me to forget the reason for it.” Wow, ice cold M’gann. Attempting to defuse the tension, I talk up and go “Well, let’s not dwell on that. Today’s the day! If anything, that’s what we should dwell on.” to which Robin, Speedy and Miss Martian go from various states of akwardness to immediate smiling. I then decide to go “If you told me 3 months ago that I would be standing in front of the Hall Of Justice with fellow superheroes as part of my first step to becoming a member of the Justice League, I’d be questioning your sanity.”

The sound of footsteps distract me from my thoughts and one glance at that distraction shows me Aquaman and Aqualad. Aquaman himself looks like the usual: A tall, 5’8” - 5’10” muscle bound blondehaired and blondebearded blue eyed Causcasian man wearing an orange scalemail tunic with dark green leggings as his uniform. On said uniform is a gold belt with a stylized A and golden gauntlets with dark green armor (which I would later know as greaves) on his legs. Aqualad himself is wearing a red and blue swimsuit with fins on the back of the calves and a similar A on his belt. On his back is what appears to be a metal backpack with two handles sticking out of it. The most outstanding parts of his appearance isn’t even on the uniform, rather his body: black eel tattoos that run among his arms leading from his back and webbing onhis hands and feet one expects to see on a frog, and gills on his neck. He looks at me and says “While I would not phrase it like that, I would have to agree with your statement Chimera.” before holding his hand out and going “Apologies for my interruption and lack of introduction. I am Kaldur’ahm, but you may call me Kaldur or Aqualad depending on your preference.”

“It’s okay, Kaldur. I know the feeling. Now, onto more urgent matters: Where are the speedsters? We won’t start without them.” It’s at this point Batman speaks up and informs us “As per usual, they are running late. If I had to estimate their ETA, it would be within a few minutes.”

Aquaman speaks up and suggests “While we wait for them, I think that we wait outside the Hall.”

We promptly move closer to the Hall, and Batman kicks things off with a “Today’s the day.” Martian Manhunter continues the introduction with “Your first step to becoming fullfledged members of the Justice League.” before Green Arrow follows up with “Welcome to the Hall of Justice.” with Aquaman finishing off with “Headquaters of the Justice League.” Before anybody else can voice their thoughts, an “Aw man!” followed by two squeals of rubber ring out. Turning to look at the source, I see The Flash and Kid Flash joining us. “I knew we’d be the last ones here!”

Kid Flash himself had the most comics accurate uniform yet: yellow with red pants and gloves, red goggles, a red lightning bolt emblem on a white circle, and two extruding red lightning bolts where the ears should be. Flash himself is wearing a red bodysuit with yellow boots, a yellow lighting bolt emblem on a white circle, two extruding yellow lightning bolts where the ears should be, and lightning bolts doodled on his waist and wrists. With a smirk, Flash tells his partner “Calm down, Kid. It’s not like the end of the world.” to which Kid Flash yells annoyingly “Oh, for you it isn’t!”

Batman, deciding to regain some semblance of control, growls out “Enough. Let’s not waste any more time.” Aquaman agrees with “We should get a move on.”

Walking to the Hall with my fellow mentors and proteges, I hear indiscriminate speech from the public. One questions if it’s Batman, another four arguing over Kid Flash’s and Speedy’s names, some photographer trying to get a shot of M’gann for ‘reference’ and getting stopped before he does anything, and a few more trying to get Batman say something.

While walking to the entrance, I hear Kid Flash ask me “So, what’s the deal with you and Beautiful over there?” to which I respond semitruthfully with “I come from a different universe with a different history and laws of science. While there, I came into possession of the Omnitrix. I was flung to this universe because of an unknown rift in the fabric of reality. Said interactions between me and the rift gave me some general knowledge of the heroes of this universe, but none of the important stuff like the history of the universe. As for Miss Martian, the only thing I can tell you is that she’s Martian Manhunter’s niece.”

“So, alternate universes exist?”

“Yes, but I can’t access mine for some reason. I really want to go back home and tell my parents what happened to me, but it’s been two months and I haven’t gotten any results from S.T.A.R Labs.”

“It must _suck_ to know that your powers can’t help you get the thing you want.”

In a tiny pained voice, I whisper “Yeah, it does.” After a few seconds, I stop brooding to make sure that I don’t bring down the mood of the day with me.

After a few minutes, we reach the outside of the Hall. Green Arrow asks us “Ready to see the inner sanctum?” to which Speedy replies with “Born that way.” and a minor glance towards his mentor.

  
Aqualad decides to converse with us fellow sidekicks by starting with “I’m glad we’re all here.” M’gann practically jumps up and yells excitedly “Me too. I always wanted to see what Earth was like.” before continuing somewhat sadly with “It’s nothing like I thought it would be, but that’s OK.” Before anybody else could respond, Kid Flash glances curiously at Robin and asks “Have all four-” M’gann and I glare at him immediately and he backtracks with “sorry, six sidekicks been at the same place at the same time?”. As if the word ‘sidekick’ offended him, Speedy angrily replies with “ _Don’t_ call us sidekicks. Not after today.” With all the sincerity one can muster without being Superman, Kid Flash apologizes with “Sorry. First time at the Hall. I’m a little overwhelmed.” Miss Martian enthusiastically yells “Not as much as me!” which I follow up with “Nor me.”

Robin, apparently deciding to bastardize English, asks himself “You’re all overwhelmed, Freeze was underwhelmed. Why isn’t anybody just whelmed?” as we walk through the doors. We all stop and look at the massive bronze statues of the seven founders (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash II, Green Lantern II, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter) to which Robin reacts with a “Oh. Maybe that’s why.” At the base of the statues is a large door with ‘AUTHORIZED PERSONEL ONLY’written on it. Sliding open, I see Red Tornado, a blue caped red human sized robot with black slots for eyes and mouths, a yellow arrow on his forehead and a yellow circle with a red T on his chest look at us and motions to an area where the cameras can see us. He voices his congratulations with “Robin, Chimera, Speedy, Miss Martian, Aqualad, Kid Flash. Welcome. You now have unlimited access to the gym, our fully stocked gallery, and of course, our library.” As he says that, the door opens.

Kid Flash and Robin fist bumps, Miss Martian squeals with glee, and Aqualad and I smile. Looking inside, I see a blue carpeted floor with a stylized pattern on it, a black metallic desk, various brown couches scattered across the room, gold bookcases filled with books built into the walls, and a computer that looked like Jack Kirby designed it. Flash announces “Make yourselves at home!” and does a grand gesture and a smile to complement his announcement. Robin and Kid Flash jump into two right next to each other, Aqualad sits calmly into the one next to them, Miss Martian flies into one near them, and I decide to sit right next to her. Speedy however remains standing, looking at our mentors angrily. _Oh god, this can’t end well._

M’gann looks at me and sends a telepathic _How so?_

_I don’t know, but I have a feeling that this day has gone from great to bad. Also, please stop with the telepathy. I told you before to not use it on civilians and friends without permission unless not doing so would be dangerous to us._

M’gann looks sheepishly at me while she sends me a sorry telepathically. As we end our brief telepathic conversation, I hear Batman go “Quick debrief to discuss the coincidence of six ice villains attacking on the same day” to his fellow members of the League before turning to us and saying “We shouldn’t be long”. He turns to a door with ‘JUSTICE LEAGUE MEMBERS ONLY’ written on it. A camera that looks like it belongs on a webcam pops out from the top of said door on a pole. Said camera emits a yellow light that scans each member of the League present and the computerized voice that’s the telltale sign of a Zeta tube robotically voices “Recognized: Batman-0-2, Aquaman-0-6, Flash-0-4, Green Arrow-0-8, Martian Manhunter-0-7, Red Tornado-1-6.”

I turn to Robin and ask “What’s with the designations? Aren’t they supposed to be designation first then codename?” to which he whispers a response with “The Batcave Zeta-Tube is programmed differently than the other ones on the Zeta Network to protect his secrets.” Should have expected that. My musings on Batman’s paranoia is ended by an angry “That’s it?!” from Speedy. This won’t end well.

Speedy continues his rant with “You promised a _real_ look inside, not a glorified backstage pass!”, crossing his arms as he finishes voicing his thoughts, clearly furious about something. He should really calm down, we’re in the League HQ.

Aquaman speaks up calmly with “It’s a first step. You’ve been granted access few others get.”

Speedy continues his rant with “Oh really?” before he gestures his arms to windows observing us from the roof. How did I not see that? My focus turns back to the current conversation with “Who cares which side of the glass we’re on?”

Green Arrow tries to calm him down with “Roy, you just need to be patient.” Ouch, civilian name. There’s definitely something else going down here.

“What I need is _respect_.” Speedy then turns to us quiet proteges who were listening and not responding, trying to get us on his side with “They’re treating us like kids. Worse, like sidekicks!” I can sense that whatever’s going on is riling him up with each passing second. “We deserve better than this!”

  
We all exchange looks at each other, still silent as to why he went from continually annoyed to Hulk levels of anger. As we finish looking at each other, we turn to Speedy, my arms crossed in a ‘I’m-disapointed-in-you’ way and Robin’s eyes going wide beneath his mask. Roy’s voice drops, and he asks “You’re kidding, right?”. Oh dear god, what he knows is something that offends him down to a personal level, almost as if his entire identity revolves around it. Any more analysis on his behavior is interrupted by him asking “You’re playing _their_ game?!” Upon seeing our lack of reactions, his anger erupts in one word: “Why?! Today was supposed to be _the_ day, step one in being full fledged members of the League!”

Kid Flash speaks up, voicing our thoughts with “Well sure, but I thought step one was the tour of the HQ.” while he sits up straight.

“Except the Hall _isn’t_ the League’s real HQ.” Green Arrow looks surprised in a ‘You-betrayed-my-trust-in-you’ way, while Aquaman’s eyes just expand in shock. Martian Manhunter’s face shows how ashamed he is, as if he felt that the secret was best kept from his niece. Green Lantern looks almost apologetic at me, to which I respond with a hurt glare. Miss Martian responds to this revelation with a broken glance, as if the one person she trusted the most betrayed her feelings, and the three other boys here-Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash have their mouths drop in varying emotions ofshock.

Seeing this as his cue to continue, Speedy-no, Red Arrow if this ends up where I think it will- “I bet they never told you it’s just a false front for tourists and a pit stop for catching Zeta-Beam teleporter tubes to the real thing: An orbiting satellite called the Watchtower.” I feel a small twinge of anger build up. Why did they lie to me? I told the founders about the Watchtower in one of my meetings with them, and when I asked if they had one here, they responded that they didn’t.

Green Arrow looks at Batman, who is currently giving the father of all death glares and says “I know, I know, but I thought we could make an exception.” The only response he is given is an even more deadlier death glare from Batman, to which he responds with a quiet “Or not.”

Martian Manhunter’s eyes glow red, and he says “We do have our reasons for not showing the Watchtower. Now, I would highly recommend we all calm down before we continue this conversation.”

“Some of us have been proteges for _years_ and you don’t trust _them_ to keep the Watchtower a secret?”

Aquaman, trying to reign in Red Arrow, points out to him “You’re not helping your cause here son. Stand down, or-”

“Or what?! You’ll send me to my room? And I’m not your son!” his mood shifts from angry to sad, locking his eyes with Green Arrow’s, “I’m not even his. I thought I was his partner, but not anymore.” With a flourish, he takes off his hat and throws it to the ground, to the shock of Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash. As he starts to walk out of the room, he shuts us down by saying “Guess they were right about you five. You’re not ready yet.” With those words, he leaves the room, apparently about to start his career as Red Arrow.

Before we can muse on Red Arrow’s words, a beep comes from the computer and Superman appears on the monitor. He prefaces his call with “Superman to Justice League. There has been an explosion at Cadmus. It’s on fire.”

As the Leaguers step up to the computer, Batman mentions “I’ve had my suspicions of Cadmus, and some intel I acquired confirmed them. This may pres-” only to get cut off by another beep from the computer. I see a middle aged man with green eyes and a prominent moustache wearing a top hat. What’s odd is that I don’t know who it is until I hear “Zatara to Justice League. The sorcerer Wotan is using the Amulet of Attan to block out the sun. Requesting full League response.” Ah, so that’s who it is. Given the last name of Zatara, I assume he’s Zatanna’s dad who’s still alive due to an unknown factor. Note to self: check on Constantine and Zatanna.

Batman, clearly conflicted, asks “Superman?”

“It’s a small fire. The local authorities have it under control.”

“Then Cadmus can wait.” Pressing a button on the admittedly large keyboard, Batman speaks up into what I presume is an invisible mic and announces “All Leaguers rendezvous at Zatara’s coordinates. Batman out.”

Feeling a need to work out my anger and disappointment on something, I decide to stand up along with my fellow proteges only for Batman to go “Stay put.” without even bothering to look at us, causing anger to rise on our faces.

Robin, whose betrayal is presumably the most personal, asks “What? Why?”

Aquaman, deciding to butt in, rebukes us “This is a League mission.” with Flash continuing with “You’re not trained.”

Almost immediately after the words leave Flash’s mouth, Kid Flash questions “Since when?”

Flash clarifies his earlier comment with “I meant you’re not trained to work as a part of this team.” and moves his arms around the five other mentors and the monitor to help his point.

Martian Manhunter then supports Flash’s argument with “If we were to bring you into this mission now, there will be a high chance of you dying. And we cannot afford to lose you.”

Aquaman continues the discussion with “There will be more missions, when you’re ready.”

Batman decides to end the conversation with “But for now, stay put.” with Green Lantern butting in with “And don’t you dare sneak out of the Hall to help us take down Wotan. It’s very risky, and your deaths could cripple the League.”

Flash tries to encourage us with “Look, we’re sorry about this whole mess, but we felt that the Watchtower would be best kept as a surprise for later. Now stay here, and we’ll be back in a flash!” The entirety of the half-hearted apology is met with various groans, as we ponder why we aren’t trusted by the people we worked with.

As the mentors and Red Tornado walk away, our sadness falls away and becomes anger, except for M’gann, who’s still sad. Kid Flash scoffs and begins a conversation with “When we’re ready? How are we supposed to be ready when they treat us like-,” before pausing as if the next words hurt to say “like sidekicks”

Aqualad continues the discussion of betrayed trust with “My mentor, my King, I thought he trusted me.” with M’gann adding “I thought my uncle trusted me as well. Can’t believe he’s just like all of the rest of the-” before pausing to make sure her secret doesn’t get out.

“ _Trust_?” Kid Flash begins sarcastically, “They don’t even trust us with the basics! They’ve got a secret HQ in space!”

Robin sighs and asks “Why didn’t we leave with Speedy?” to which I respond with “Maybe it’s because he’s such a jerk?”

“Dude!”

“What did you expect me to say? It’s my first time meeting him, y’know?”

“Yeah, well…”

It’s at this point Aqualad cuts us off and asks “What is Project Cadmus?”

Robin, hearing this, goes “Don’t know, but I can find out.” before he types some things into the computer, and ‘Access Denied’ appears on the computer with a buzz. This doesn’t seem to deter him, in fact he laughs and says “Wanna bet?” before typing some more.

As Robin hacks the League computer, Kid Flash stops to look and asks Robin in awe “Whoa. How are you doing that?”

“Same system as the Batcave!”

Just as Robin finishes hacking, ‘Access Granted’ pops up on the monitor and an image of a two story office building and a few sentences shows us what the League knows about Cadmus: not a lot. Seeing this information, I comment “Hmph. If Batman’s suspicious about Cadmus, then we should investigate. Who knows what mad science is in there?”

Miss Martian looks at me oddly and asks “Aren’t you being a bit paranoid, Chimera?”

“M’gann, when you’re a superhero, paranoia is practically a requirement. A genetics laboratory that Batman is interested in and doesn’t know much about is essentially a sign saying ‘Please Investigate Me!’Am I right or am I right?”

Robin turns to look at me before going “Yeah, you’re right.”

Miss Martian then asks us “So, are we investigating or not?”

“Anything for you, babe.”/ “As long as you can stay whelmed.”/“It would be poetic justice.”/“Somebody has to keep you all in check.”

Pondering on our reactions, Aqualad wonders “So, just like that we’re a team on a mission?”

Our smiles die down, but the Boy Wonder smirks and reminds Kaldur “We didn’t come here for a playdate.”

Kid Flash, clearly impatient, asks “How long from here to Cadmus? ‘Cause I wanna race Chimera as Fastcat!”

Robin, checking the info, informs us “About sixteen minutes by car.”

“Alright, let’s go!”

I decide to put my foot down and prevent any cheating by telling Kid Flash “Hold on a minute, I need to change for a minute.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

I activate the Omnitrix, lock in Fastcat, and push the dial down. Within a second, I turn into Fastcat, now wearing a X-shaped green harness on the chest with the Omnitrix itself positioned in the middle of said harness.

While Kid Flash and I get into a sprinter’s starting position, I turn to my speedster friend and ask him “Are you ready to bite my dust?”

“Oh, you’re going to be biting _my_ dust.”

I hear M’gann tell me “You can do it, Chimera!”. Aqualad, deciding to be the referee, announces in his voice “This shall be a race to Project Cadmus. The rules are simple: no cheating. On the count of three, you shall race. Ready?”

I respond with “As ready as I can ever be.” while Kid Flash responds with “Obviously!”

Seeing the looks on our faces, Aqualad kicks off the race with “Well then, one, two, three!”

We rush to Cadmus, Kid Flash in a blur of yellow and red and I in a blur of blue, black and green. Upon arriving at Cadmus (a full three and a half minutes earlier than KF, I might add), I see two men in lab coats in front of a window who can’t get to safety due to the fire. Without further prompting, I run up the walls, grab the scientists and run back down to place them on the ground all in one fell swoop. One of the firefighters sees me (or more specifically, the Omnitrix) and yells out “Hey look, it’s Chimera!” and upon the arrival of Kid Flash in front of Cadmus “and whatshisname, Flashboy!” to which an indignant KF replies with “Kid Flash! Why is that so hard to remember?”

“Because it doesn’t roll off the tongue as well?”

“Neither does Chimera!”

“But Chimera sounds much more memorable!

“Point made.”

We see Robin, Miss Martian and Aqualad come up to us, having clearly ran or in the case of Miss Martian, flew here. Aqualad voices his displeasure at us with “While I do enjoy a bit of friendly banter, now is not the time. We are here to rescue lives and investigate Cadmus.”

I respond with a salute and go “Right. Sorry. Won’t happen again, Kaldur.” and Kid Flash responds with “Sorry, Kaldur.”

Aqualad smiles and apologizes to us with “I understand, but right now banter should be done while saving lives, which is our top priority at the moment. Speaking of doing so, are you in possession of a form capable of extinguishing fire, Chimera?”

I go “Yep!” and hit the Omnitrix. I become a 8 '0'' red crab based humanoid being known as a Cascan. My arms are merely pressurized water faucets with claws for fingers, and my head is merely a mollusk looking Vaderesque helmet with four glowing green linelike eyes and an unmoving grey mouth. Above my head is a hood made out of the same bonelike material the rest of my body is made of. Two tubes filled with water connect my arms to my back. Out of the top of my lungs, I shout out “Oceania!” and promptly turn all of the evaporated water present in Cadmus from smoke to liquid.

I turn to everybody else besides me and ask “So, what do you think?”

One of the two firefighters go “Well, you could have destabilized the building, but that’s a risk we had to take.”

“In fairness, I don’t have any sort of firefighting training whatsoever beyond blast water or fire extinguishers at it.” A quick look around the area shows that my fellow proteges have vanished, presumably inside the building. I turn to the two firefighters and go “Apologies, but I better be going now. I was supposed to be investigating Cadmus with friends, and it seems they went ahead and already entered. Perhaps we’ll talk about this situation later.”

Without a second’s hesitation, I blast some water onto the ground, and I fly to a window on the second floor of our mysterious mad science laboratory. I detransform and enter said window to see the rest of the soon to be founding members of the Titans surrounding a computer that Robin hacked with what appears to be a wrist mounted computer. The office itself doesn’t seem to look like what you’d expect from a mad scientist’s office, merely a normal one: A computer, some science textbooks, a board with sticky notes, you name it, it’s all there.

I get pulled from my thoughts by Aqualad going “There was something in the elevator!” followed by Miss Martian going “Whatever it was, it had some serious telepathic potential.” I hear myself tell Robin “Do you have the specs for that elevator?” to which he replies in the affirmative and pulls them up on his wrist computer. I see the words ‘Silver Slip Express Elevator’ followed by some statistics for an elevator that would be a waste of money if it belonged in an actual two story building, which I’m highly suspecting Cadmus isn’t. Robin seems to have the same thought, as he explains “This is a high-speed express elevator. It doesn’t belong in a two-story building.” to which Aqualad responds with “Neither does what I saw.” Miss Martian, curious as ever, asks “What did you see, Aqualad?”

“I saw a humanoid being with elf-like ears, ribbons of flesh and horns that belonged on a bull.”

Deciding to take charge, I tell everybody “We can ponder what Aqualad saw later. Right now, we need to investigate Cadmus. Miss Martian, are there any minds below us?”

“About a few thousand, though only a few hundred of those resemble human minds. The rest are unlike anything I ever felt.”

“Interesting. Aqualad, can you open the doors to the elevator?”

Aqualad responds with “Of course Chimera, though is it okay if I can ask why aren’t you opening the doors?” before he opens the doors to the elevators.

“I currently have a 15 minute time limit on my forms, with a five minute recharge time in between. If I were to switch between forms, I cut my transformation time by a minute, though if I were to turn back early I would have a shorter recharge time.”

“I see. Now shall we go down to the real Cadmus?”

“Yep!”

We go down the elevator shaft, Robin using his grappling hook to go down several stories and the rest of us boys holding onto the rope to follow him down the shaft with Miss Martian flying down. I hear “I’m at the end of my rope” and immediately we all decide to jump to the side on a very small ledge. In big letters, the words ‘SL 26’ are written on the walls and door on this floor. Robin informs us “Bypassing security” and electronic giggling fills the shaft. Once the giggling stops, he announces “There. Go.” and Aqualad pushes open the doors.

Once inside, I see a long hallway with these little cubicles that appear to be accessed through the use of black panels in front of them and the hallway itself is filled with a dim red light. Without any prompting from us, Kid Flash bolts to the end of the hallway. I hear Aqualad cry out “Kid, wait!” and Miss Martian informs us “I’m sensing some sort of mental presence marching in a straight line at the end of the hallway.”

Heavy footsteps fill the hallway, and we see massive grey creatures as tall as the room with elephant legs and human arms decorated with strange red markings walk in a single file line. Three bonelike spikes grown out of their shoulders and gilllike markings on their chests and necks distract me from the most interesting aspect of them all: a head as big as an inflated football with two red eyes, red marks on the forehead, with four horns extruding from the sides, two on each side. Their mouths are open and two fangs seem to come out of them. At a mere look of one of these creatures, Kid Flash skids to a stop and falls in the path of one of the creatures. Barely dodging the hands of one of the creatures, Kid Flash gets up and walks towards us. With the most sarcastic tone I can ever hear from Aqualad, he voices his thoughts with “Noooooo. Nothing strange going on here.”

Miss Martian, in a worried voice, informs us “Umm, guys? I felt a telepathic presence from the top of one of the monsters. Whatever we came here to do, I think we should do it now.”

I process this information and tell M’gann “Alright. If you feel anything that has a similar telepathic presence to one of these monsters, take them out hard. We can’t risk anything happening to us that could turn this mission sideways.” Aqualad agrees with me by saying “Indeed. I had the same thought as well, Chimera. It would be unwise to not utilize Miss Martian’s telepathic abilities to ensure success.”

We reach the end of the hallway and see a massive door with a circular red center made of electronic lights. Robin pulls out a wire from his wrist computer and hooks it up to the terminal, Kid Flash looks over to see his hacking progress, Aqualad moves over to watch out six, and Miss Martian and I sit right next to each other with our backs against the walls. I feel a familiar telepathic signature in my mind and I ‘hear’ Miss Martian go _Hey Chimera, mind if we have a telepathic conversation?_

_Sure._

_So, how are you feeling?_

_Not gonna lie, this day has been mixed so far. While I’m glad I get to go on an unofficial mission with my friends-or at the very least, coworkers in a sense-I’m a bit angry at the fact that my mentor decided to lie to me about the headquarters of the League and the trust he put into me. You?_

_I’m furious that Uncle J’onn lied to me! He was the second Green Martian, the first being my mother, to accept me for who I am, not for the color of my skin. Not even my Green siblings cared much for me when we were outside of our home. And to see him lie to me because he didn’t trust me enough infuriates me! Do you know how that feels?!_

_I don’t know, but I have to say it hurts a lot._

_It does! I did my best to not get into the business of the Greens unless it was in self-defense, because I knew that I would be outnumbered, overpowered and betrayed by the courts if I were to fight back! And to see my uncle act like that angers me. He’d better have a good explanation for this, or else I’ll_ -

M’gann’s telepathic venting at me ends when we hear a hiss and see the doors open to a massive room filled with tubes containing buglike beings generating electricity to a generator built into the top part of a wall in front of us. Robin, awed at this sight of biotechnology, mutters “OK, I’m officially whelmed.” as we take in the beauty and cruelty in front of us. Kid Flash walks and points out to us, somewhat excitingly “This is how they hide this massive underground facility from the world! The real Cadmus isn’t on the grid. It generates its own power with these...things.” All excitement is replaced with sadness when he says “Must be what they’re bred for.”

Aqualad agrees with Kid Flash by pointing out “Even the name is a clue. The Cadmus of myth created a new race by sowing Dragon’s teeth into the earth.”

Robin continues the chain of deduction by going “And this Cadmus creates new life too.” He heads to a nearby computer terminal and attaches one of the wires from his wrist computer into the terminal. Faint beeping reaches our ears and Robin informs us “They call them Genomorphs.” That name, for some reason, catches everybody’s attention. “Whoa! Look at the stats on these things- super-strength, telepathy, razor claws. These are living weapons.”

In a questioning tone, Kid Flash wonders “They’re engineering an army. But for who?”

Something appears to catch Robin’s eye and he switches to said eye catcher, while Aqualad moves closer to our resident hacker. “Wait, there’s something else. Project Kr.” He tries hacking into the file only to hit a dead end and voices his frustration with “Ugh! The file’s triple encrypted. I-I can’t-” before getting interrupted with a harsh “Don’t move!” and the sounds of growls and slurps.

We turn and see a tall Causcasian man in an armored blue jumpsuit and gold helmet equipped with a golden heater shield on his right hand, and one of the beings Cadmus called G-Gnomes on his left shoulder surrounded by seven G-Elves as the files helpfully called them: longer, skinner, tall beings that are as small as a human child yet have four claws on their hands and three on their feet. The G-Gnome itself is a very small, four legged white creature with black stripes, short horns and red eyes on its head and face. Guardian turns and looks at us, going “Wait, Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Chimera and Miss Martian?”

Robin teases Kid Flash with a “At least he got your name right.” while working on decrypting Project Kr’s files out of sight. A look of familiarity dawns on Aqualad’s face as he says “I know you. Guardian, a hero.”to our mysterious staff member. Guardian responds with standing tall and a humble “I do my best.” In a curious tone of voice, Kid Flash asks “Then what are you doing _here_?”

“I’m chief of security. You’re trespassing, but we can call the Justice League, figure this out.”

The moment becomes tense for a while until a beep from Robin’s wrist computer rings through the room. Kid Flash, deciding to take control of the conversation, angrily voices his questions with “You think the League’s gonna approve of you breeding weapons?!”

“Weapons?” Guardian asks, confused. “What are you-” before the G-Gnome’s horns glow red for a brief second until it falls unconscious. Miss Martian jumps up and shouts out “You may be good at telepathy, but I’m better!”

“What have I been doing?” he asks nobody in particular, to which I respond with “Working as Chief of Security for a shady NGO superpower?”

“Right. Well, I’ll call the Justice League and have them sweep Cadmus. Until then, stay put.” to which Robin replies with a “Sorry, no can do! We gotta find out what Project Kr is!” to which Guardian responds with a “That was not a request. G-Elves, knock them unconscious!”

Both the G-Elves and Robin jump into action, with Robin getting in front of us, dropping a smoke bomb and grappling to one of the support beams. Kid Flash backs up as a G-Elf slashes at his chest to dodge before he walks up on the wall and dives at two G-Elves with dual punches, then pushes off the opposing vertical support to execute an inverted flip to push off and kick one in the chest before rebounding back into the smoke.

I turn into Greenhouse, my Methanosian form. My humanoid plant body is light green with my face being shades of yellow, red and orange. My hands are black with four yellow claws, yellow spikes on the knuckles, and yellow holes on the palms. There are six red horns with yellow spots on my body, one on each shoulder and two on my forearms. Six green horns are on my lower body, one on each foot, knee and elbow. A large collar is raised on my neck, green on the outside and yellow on the inside. The Omnitrix is on my stomach.

Without a second’s notice, I drop a few seeds into the ground, capturing the two G-Elves as they burst out of the ground. With my two attackers currently entangled in my vines, I blast two clouds of methane at them, rendering them unconscious. It’s a rarely used ability, used only once in the entirety of Classic Ben 10. With that done, I drop some more seeds and block off the room from further interception by Cadmus security forces.

Aqualad throws one of the few remaining G-Elves off of him, and offhands backhands another one coming to the left of him. Miss Martian uses her telekinesis to throw the two G-Elves attacking her onto the ground, instantly ending the fight.

With that out of the way, Miss Martian, Aqualad and I run to Kid Flash who is berating Robin, who is currently hacking an elevator terminal. Alarms are blaring, which I guess meant that a G-Gnome sensed M’gann knocking out his brethren and pushed an actual alarm to alert the facility about us. Any further thoughts on how things went so wrong is stopped with a “Way to be a team player, Rob!” from Kid Flash to which Robin responds surprised, with “Weren’t you right behind me?” as his hack finishes, the elevator opens and we enter. Much to my annoyance, and everybody else’s, the floor number increases. Aqualad voices his concern and dislike at Robin’s gaslighting with “We’re going _down_?” with Kid Flash going “Dude, out is up! I don’t want Beautiful here get into trouble with her uncle!”

Miss Martian looks confused and asks “You think I’m beautiful?” only for everybody else in the elevator to snap at her tensely and go “Not Now!”

Aqualad refocuses our attention with “This is getting out of hand. Perhaps we should contact the Justice League.” to which I go “And distract them from Wotan blotting out the sun, possibly killing them? Noooo, thank you. If the situation gets out of hand, I’ll call the only League-level super who I know that doesn’t have any ties to the League.” Aqualad sighs and voices his thoughts with “I cannot believe I am saying this, but you are right Chimera.” to which an indignant Robin disbelivingly asks “He’s right? I’m the one who led us down to Project Kr!”

Any further argument is ended by the ding of the elevator and the woosh of the elevator doors. We tense up for a fight, only to see organic looking hallways instead. With a sigh of relief, I hit the Omnitrix and detransform. Noticing a change in the aroma of the room, Kid Flash yells out “Thank god that smell’s gone! What was it anyway?” to which I respond with “That was Greenhouse’s methane.”

“Why do you have a form that produces methane?”

“Greenhouse produces methane as a fuel source for some of his abilities, like fire projection and knockout gas clouds.”

“Why didn’t you tell us you had a methane producing form earlier?”

“You never asked!”

Aqualad growls “Which way?” and is given a nonchalant response of “Yeah, bizarre looking hallway one or bizarre looking hallway two?” from Robin.

Before we can ponder Robin’s odd sense of priorities, a “Halt!” comes from a being whose body looks just like Aqualad’s shadow clad elevator user, wearing white shirt and pants over blue skin. His horns glow red and cans are telepathically lifted and thrown at us. Seeing no use to fight, we go down the less hostile hallway, with Kid Flash superspeeding a few seconds into the run down the halls.

Catching up to him, we see a scientist on the floor and a door similar to the one containing the insect Genomorphs but with the words ‘Project Kr’ written on the door in a yellow futuristic font. Seeing the door quickly close, Kid Flash puts a container between the two parts of the door and yells out “Hurry!” to the rest of us. We all enter the door just in time for Kaldur to kick the container out of the door, locking us inside and the scientist, Guardians and the G-Elves outside.

As I look around, I see Miss Martian float right next to Kid Flash, Aqualad pondering at the door, and Robin hacking at the door. He disengages from the hacking and informs us “I disabled the the door. We’re safe.”

Aqualad mutters grimly “We’re trapped.” before looking to Kid Flash and Miss Martian who are in front of a large computer system a bit down the system. Kid Flash looks at us and attracts our attention with “Uh, guys? You’ll want to see this.” Hitting one of four light rectangular buttons near the top of the console, the room is illuminated and we see a pod with ‘Kr’ written in a box on it. Inside said pod is what I presume to be three G-Gnomes forcefeeding what appears to be Superboy a telepathic education. Superboy himself looks like Superman: tall, pitchblack hair, pale skin and a glowing white bodysuit with a red House of El coat of arms on it. The only word I hear from any of us is a “Whoa!” from Robin.

Kid Flash walks around the console and looks in front of the pod. He mutters deep in thought “Big ‘K’, Little ‘r’; the atomic symbol for Krypton!” before turning back to us and rhetorically asks us “Clone?”

Aqualad, in an authoritative voice, makes a command with “Robin, hack.” to which Robin responds by breaking out of his stupor and mutters “Right, right.” M’gann looks at the pod and informs us “I can feel three telepathic presences in there from the small pods above. What should I do?” to which I respond with “Knock them out and make sure that any and all telepathic communications between them and other Genomorphs are disconnected for the next few hours. Actually, to be on the safe side, knock out _all_ telepathic genomorphs connected to the network.” Her eyes glow white for a moment before fading and I hear a “Done!” while the three Genomorphs have their horns go from red to bone white as they fall asleep. After that happens, I turn to the others and ask “So, what have you found out so far?”

Robin speaks up with “Well, this is Superboy, Superman’s kid force grown from Superman’s stolen DNA. The suit allows him to absorb sunlight 24/7, and the G-Gnomes, what Cadmus calls their telepathic beasts, are forcefeeding him an education and slave protocols.”

“Alright then, I’ll call for backup.”

Kid Flash looks annoyed at me and goes “Dude, we tried calling!”

With a smile, I tell Kid Flash “I haven’t.” and go “Omnitrix, access Contacts list.”

A digitized version of my voice goes “ _Affirmative._ ” and pulls up a list of names that I quickly scroll through. “That’s my favorite pizza place...that’s the library system...that’s the online college I attend...that’s Batman...That’s Bruce Wayne...that’s Clark Kent...That’s Wonder Woman...That’s Wonder Woman’s embassy...That’s the Green Lantern who bothers with a secret identity...That’s John Stewart...Ah, here we go! Guy Gardener!”

Robin groans with disgust and questions my choice “Of all the people you’re calling, you’re calling _him_?”

“He is a Green Lantern, and is arguably better than the Green Lantern who’s my mentor. Not to mention, he is League-level despite not being a member of the League.” Given the fact that Hal was chosen on a basis of proximity rather than capability (a thing I am told by John to never bring up in the proximity of both Hal and Guy) I think it’s safe to say that it’s true that he’s a great choice for reliable backup.

“Yeah, but still! He’s-”

“Annoying? Smug? Impulsive? Simultaneously several different shades of jerk? Our best bet for discreet backup?”

...“Fine! Call him now.”

“Alright, calling him now.” I then hit the call button on the Omnitrix and I wait for a few seconds before Guy picks up.

“Hey Chimera, what’s happening? And why the call? Today’s the day!”

I wince in emotional pain and tell Guy “Long story short, Hall of Justice not real League HQ, discovered that from Speedy’s going solo rant, investigated Cadmus as an act of rebellion, discovered that Cadmus is really shady and has made several artificial lifeforms, got chased by Cadmus security down to the lowest level, and found Superman’s teenaged clone made without consent.”

In the most dull voice a Marylander can muster, Guy goes “Wow. You really are full of suprises, aren’t ya?”

“Yes, yes I am. Now, please hurry up. We’re sealed in shut and I don’t think the doors will hold for long.”

In a frustrated tone, he rambles on with “Alright, alright. I’m hurrying as fast as I can. Some Khunds disobeying their Emperor’s orders that Earth’s off limits have decided to set up a small surveillance outpost for a possible invasion, and it’s up to Guy here to give them an ass whoopin’.”

“That’s all I ask of you. I guess I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

“Don’t count on it! I’ll see ya later.” And with that, he hangs up.

I then ask my team “Well then, I assume you heard all of it?” and am met with several voices of agreement, including one from an unfamiliar voice. Turning around, and I see Superboy, who’s face is as unemotive as possible. I hold out my hand and I greet him with a “Hello there, I’m Chimera and you must be Superboy. How are you?”

“...Fine.”

“Do you have any questions?”

“Why should I not burn you down to a crisp?”

“Help us escape and we can give you the one thing practically everybody has: freedom. Stay here, and you’ll be doing what Cadmus wants you to do. And I don’t think you want to do what Cadmus wants you to, don’t you?”

“Well, I want to meet Superman. But everything Cadmus taught me is that he should be killed if he strayed from the light.”

I exchange worried looks with my fellow intruders for a bit before Aqualad tries to motivate our new friend with “To be like Superman is a worthy aspiration, but like Superman, you deserve a life of your own beyond Cadmus.”

These words infuriate Superboy for some reason, and he yells in a rage “I live because of Cadmus! It is my home!”

Robin points out “Your home is a _test tube_.” and I support Robin with “We can show you what you learned from your telepathic education: The Sun, The Moon, cities, towns, cultures, et cetera.”

Miss Martian joins in with “We can show you what real life is like.”

A voice yells out “No, you won’t! I don’t know what you did, but you knocked out the entirety of telepathic communications for the entirety of Cadmus. But rest assured, there will be consequences. Now, as per the orders of the board of directors, get the weapon back in its pod and take the children for Project Sidekick, except for Chimera who is to be killed and his watch taken off him.” Turning around, I see a 5’9’ man with long brown colored hair and a ponytail stained by streaks of white wearing a standard lab coat, black glasses with square lenses, and sandals.

“You must be the Director of Cadmus, I presume?”

“And you’re the Chimera. So, you’re the reason why Cadmus has a security breach.”

“More or less.”

“Do you know the scientific potential of your watch? If we could disassemble it, Cadmus would become leaders in genetic technology for years to come! Now, hand it over.”

“Can’t. I don’t know the code to do so,” which would be a lie “And even if I did, I wouldn’t hand it over to anybody I don’t trust, assuming it would even work for them.” which is the truth.

“That was not a request. Take him down!” Three of the beasts that nearly killed Kid Flash come by and run towards me. I respond by choosing one of my most difficult aliens I have mastered: the form known to many in the general public as CheMystery. I turn into a purple skinned being with green eyes wearing a green hazmat suit and boots. My hands lose a finger, grows a second layer of skin and grows vents that I can project gas from. All around my body, gas vents are created, and the skin on my stomach turns into an organic glass compound. My internal organs save for my nervous system, my skeletal system, my muscles and my larynx are evaporated, and my bladder is turned into some sort of chemical disposal system. Bone grows out of my face and forms a gas mask covering where my mouth and nose should be. The Omnitrix is on a belt located around my stomach. Immediately jumping into action, I shout out “CheMystery!” and I whip up what I hope are non lethal amounts of knockout gas tailored specifically for humans and humanity’s evolutionary relatives and I disperse it in front of me. In one fell swoop, our attackers, Guardian, Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash fall unconscious. Seeing that my work here is done, I disperse a neutralzying agent in the air, immediately ending the threat of death from overdosing. I then blast the three allies with a chemical agent designed specifically to neutralize said compound.

Waking up with a groan, Kid Flash, Robin and Aqualad hold their hand on their forehead and look at me annoyed. Kid Flash, being the science wiz he is, asks “What the hell was that gas?”

In CheMystery’s Bostonian accent, I go “A knockout gas designed to be effective only to Earth-based life that can have it’s effects instantly neutralized if the affected inhales its secondary component. Don’t ask me for the formula, it requires the resources of a fully stocked Wayne Industries Chemical Laboratory to produce outside of my physiology.”

Aqualad then turns and looks at me and asks me “Is there anything the Omnitrix’s DNA samples can’t do?” to which I respond with “Magic, probably.”

As if the concept of Magic offends him, Kid Flash disdainfully shares his opinion with “Yeah, right. Magic is a science we don’t understand yet.”

Superboy interrupts our conversation with “As much as I am interested in your talks, we should probably leave.” to which I respond with an affirmative “Right! Onwards, my fellow heroes.”

We run back towards the elevators and hit the button for ground level, only for the elevator to stop and open its doors at sublevel 42. We go out to see just a plain normal office building. Stopping to look at Superboy, I ask him “Can you fly?” to which he responds by grabbing all of us and uses his legs to get a jumping start. We reach up to sublevel 16 before we land down on the floor. “I-I’m falling. Superman can fly? Why can’t I fly?”. Miss Martian, trying to console him, consoles him with “I don’t know, but we can find out.” Superboy responds with a smile and a “Ah, thank you.” and I tell the soon to be Titans “So we’re going to have to do this the hard way then.”

We run to the elevator only to see G-Trolls and G-Elves surround us. They try to close us in, but I create a gas cloud of a nonlethal variant of Scarecrow’s fear gas in a desperate attempt to overwhelm the minds of our genetically engineered hunters. It works, and they fall to the ground in fear. Robin then turns to look at me and angrily asks me “How did you get the chemical formula for fear gas?”

“I promised that I would help Batman with a favor in exchange for getting it. Besides, this is a variant that requires phermones made by people, i.e us. Now, can somebody move the security away?”

Miss Martian replies by using her telepathy to move the immobile bodies behind us to make a barrier to prevent Cadmus security sneaking from behind. Before I could detransform to conserve my charge, a beep beep beep sound is heard and the Omnitrix’s hourglass flashes red before I turn back to normal. “Oh come on!” With a curious glare, Superboy asks “What happened?”

“Hit my time limit. I’m vulnerable until 5 minutes from now or my life is in fatal danger. Until that happens, I can’t transform.”

“So you’re useless until then?”

“Not really, just less useful.”

Climbing up the stairs to sublevel 15, we hear G-Elves and a G-Troll coming from behind. Any thoughts on the matter is stopped by an affirmative “Go Left! Left!” from Superboy. We follow him and he turns right while yelling “Right!” and stop at a wall with a vent. Kid Flash, clearly sarcastic, shouts out “Great directions, Supey! Are you trying to get us podded!?” to which an apologetic Superboy apologizes“No. I don’t understand.” Miss Martian facepalms and speaks up with “Hello M’gann! I felt a telepathic presence similar to the G-Gnomes in your mind for a few seconds, but it wasn’t hostile enough for me to raise an alarm!”

Before Superboy can get angry at M’Gann, I go ahead and ask Robin “Can we climb into the vent?” only to see the vent open and I hear some giggling coming inside. “Guess that’s a yes.” One by one, we climb into the vent, except for M’gann who once again decided to fly to the vent. Robin being the master of stealth he is, leads the way through the vents. During said vent crawl, I hear a beep signaling the Omnitrix has recharged. Miss Martian asks“What was that?” to which I respond with “Omnitrix is now fully charged.” Kid Flash, in a hushed whisper, requests “Glad to hear it, but could you change the tone? It’s a bit revealing.”

“Sorry, no can do.”

We crawl for a few more minutes and we see the G-Elves and a computer module. Thinking fast, Robin attaches a wire to the module and starts typing rapidly while we knock out the Elves and throw them aside. With a triumphant smirk, Robin announces “I hacked the motion sensors.”

Kid Flash, in the happiest tone I heard him since we began this whole mess, happily goes “Sweet.” and Miss Martian blurts out “That’s brilliant!” We exit the vent and we see the Emergency Exit. Robin grumbles “Still plenty of them between us and out.”

Bringing his goggles over his eyes, Kid Flash boasts “But I’ve finally got room to move!”, opens the door, and runs up the stairs at high velocities. Despite the Genomorph Army’s best efforts, Kid Flash runs through them and knocks them down for all of us. Robin, still hacking Cadmus, informs Superboy “More behind us.” to which Superboy responds by removing the stairs that lead to the platform.

“Huh. The more I think of it, the more this resembles Escape From New York.”

Aqualad asks me “What’s Escape From New York?” to which I respond with “It’s a movie from the 1980s starring Kurt Russell about a man who is sent to a prison to retrieve powerful knowledge and the person holding said knowledge, and he has to fight the entire prison’s population to get out. Oh, and the prison’s New York City. Do you not have that in this universe?”

Robin, overhearing the conversation, yells “We don’t have that here!”

“Shame. It’s a good movie.”

We reach the door marked with Sublevel 1, but as we do so, alarms begin to blare and the doors are about to seal shut. Kid Flash, seeing his fate, blurts out “Oh, crap.” and runs facefirst into the solid metal doors. Seeing a way to help, I go “Here. Let me try to open the doors.” and I dial in my Kryptonian transformation, Solarion. Save for the Omnitrix on my chest, a pretty impressive beard, muscles and a cape, Solarion looks identical to my human self as Chimera.

Miss Martian, a bit curious, asks me “Did the Omnitrix break?” to which I respond with a “Nope! Solarion here is a Kryptonian.” before making a circle in the door with my heat vision and putting said cut circle aside.

“If you can turn into a Kryptonian, then why won’t you turn into a Martian?”

“Because my Martian transformation is… troubling for a lack of a better word.”

We open the door and see an army of Genomorphs led by Aqualad’s mysterious figure. Without further prompting, the mysterious figure’s horns glow red, and everybody stands still. I ‘hear’ _Perhaps for the sake of all Genomorphs, our brother Superboy should make up his own mind._

Superboy, eyes wide in shock, ‘whispers’ to our mysterious figure _It was you._

_Yes, brother. I set the fire that lured your new friends into Cadmus and helped you escape._

_Why?_

_Because you are our hope, the Genomorph hero. You will blaze a trail for our brothers to show them the way to freedom._

I hear Guardian go “What’s going on?” as he sees the scene that he just walked into.

_What is your choice, brother?_

_I...choose_ …“Freedom!”

Aqualad walks in front of us and asks “Will you help us, Guardian?”

“Yeah. I can’t believe Cadmus lied about their intentions, so I’ll help you with Desmond and quit after.”

As if on cue, the scientist I saw before walks towards us, with the Genomorphs moving to either side to let him through. “I think not! Project Blockbuster will give me the power to restore order at Cadmus!” Oh crap.

As Blockbuster drinks the vial, he falls to his knees and his body grows through his skin. His clothes tear off, his eyes turn black and red, his skin gets ripped off to reveal new thick greyish skin and his entire body is purely muscle.

The newly rebirthed Blockbuster begins his new lease on life by roaring at us and sweeps Guardian away like it's nothing. Seeing my turn to act, I punch him in the privates. As he is distracted, I do a karate chop on his left shoulder. Blockbuster breaks his left arm trying to punch me in the face, and I Hapkido roundhouse kick on the chest before doing a Savate chassé kick in the middle of his right arm. Finishing things off, I do an Akido face thrust on him. End of fight results: I end up uninjured while Blockbuster here has two broken arms, a fractured jaw, a powered skull, the muilitation of his family jewels, 3 ribs gone (as in they’re dust), and 4 ribs broken. Cadmus itself has its above ground facility collapse in on its sublevels and a few members suffering from various injuries, both of which are caused by the shockwaves produced from the punches. I clear out the debris and ask everybody “Well? Are you helping? Because if not, the whole League will kill us for this. Not literally, but still. I don’t want to go back to training with the Lanterns.”

Before anybody else can say or do anything, the entirety of the Justice League comes down like the Gods of Olympus. Superman flies in front of the setting sun, followed by Martian Manhunter, Zatara (using a magical platform), Captain Marvel, and Red Tornado. Following them through the air is Captain Atom, Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Wonder Woman, and the second Green Lantern, Hal Jordan. The third Green Lantern, Guy Gardner arrives with his arms crossed, sulking that he missed the fight while the fourth Green Lantern, John Stewart, flies down with a platform made by his ring carrying down Batman, Green Arrow, Aquaman, Flash, and Black Canary.

As Batman steps up from the platform, Superboy walks up to Superman with a smile on his face, only for Superman’s mood to turn harsher. At this unspoken rejection, Superboy’s mood turns into what is best described as confused anger.

Batman, speaking up with the most tranquil fury he can muster, asks “Is that what I think it is?” to which I respond with “ _He_ doesn’t like being called that.”

Superboy, clearly angry at the whole situation, yells out “I’m Superman’s clone!”

The faces of the Leaguers (and Guy Gardner) save for Batman and Superman changes from disappointment to confusion. Deciding to regain control of the situation, Batman growls “Start talking.”

I begin with “Well, it all started once you left the Hall. We felt betrayed at the fact that you didn’t trust us enough to consider us League members in the making, so we decided to investigate Cadmus and hacked into the computers to get info on them. Upon arrival, we found out that the Cadmus we knew was in fact a decoy building and that the _actual_ Cadmus was a 52 floor underground base that was off the grid. In addition, they mastered DNA techniques well enough to the point that they created their own species that they used as manual labor as well as Kryptonian clones for their employer’s ulterior motives. We managed to break in and out, but not before Dr. Desmond here” I motion to Blockbuster “turned into Blockbuster. That’s pretty much it, unless you have any questions.”

Batman takes his fellow mentors away to a corner to discuss our actions. While they do so, I ask Superboy “So, first day being alive. How do you feel?”

“I feel happy for meeting people who believe in what I want. Other than that, I’ve done things I wouldn’t do if I stayed with them instead of joining you guys.”

“Glad to hear it. Do you have anything else to say?”

“Yeah. Will you keep Miss Martian’s promise?”

“We will find a way to give you full Kryptonian powers.”

I see a smile cross Superboy’s face as he thanks me for my help before he joins a private conversation with the senior sidekicks. Now then, what time is it? “Omnitrix, time.”

“ _Affirmative._ ”

**Ruins of Project Cadmus**

**July 4th, 17:52 PM EDT**

“Oh for the love of Tom Baker, it took _that_ long?!”

“Who’s Tom Baker?” I hear a curious Superboy ask.

“He’s a guy best known for playing the Fourth incarnation of The Doctor in Doctor Who.” One of the few good things in this universe’s popular culture is that Michael Grade never became BBC1 Controller, which meant that Doctor Who never got cancelled back in 1989. However, post-1989 Who is different in many ways. “His incarnation of the Doctor is arguably my favorite out of all of them.” Because my actual favourite, Peter Capadi’s incarnation never existed.

“Huh. Is it a good show?”

“It’s my favorite.”

I see Guy Garnder and John Stewart carry away Blockbuster in a bubble with the Hawks and Captain Atom flying near them for security. Superman walks to his clone and says to him in a professional tone“We’ll, uh, We’ll figure out something out for you. The League will, I mean. For now, I... better make sure they get that Blockbuster squared away.”

As Superman flies away, Batman walks towards us with Flash, Aquaman, the remaining Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter in tow. Batman speaks for the group with “Cadmus will be investigated. All 52 sublevels, but let’s make one thing clear-”

Flash, always the master of timing, scolds us with “You should have called!”, piquing an eyebrow from Batman before he continues with “End results aside, we are _not happy_. You hacked Justice League systems, disobeyed direct orders, and endangered lives. You will _not_ be doing this again.”

Aqualad speaks what’s on our mind with “I am sorry, but we will.” with all of us standing up in support of him.

Aquaman tries to take control with “Aqualad, stand down.”

“Apologies, my king” Aqualad says with reverance before going in a firm voice “but no.” As Aquaman raises an eyebrow, Aqualad continues with “We did good work here tonight, the work you trained us to do. Together on our own we forged something powerful, important.”

Flash tries to apologize with “If this is about your treatment at the Hall, the five of you-”

Kid Flash interrupts with “The _six_ of us, and it’s not!”

Robin speaks up in a quiet voice “Batman, we’re ready to do what _you_ taught us, or why teach us at all?”

Miss Martian scolds the League with “We trusted you to be our heroes, and yet you tore down that idea without even realizing it.”

Martian Manhunter tries to calm us down with “I tried to get the League to show you the Watchtower, but-.”

I follow up with “Trying isn’t good enough. What’s the point of being a hero if we’re being coddled beyond relief?”

Green Lantern angrily yells at us “We’re not coddling you!” before going somewhat silently “We just needed to know if we can trust you.”

  
Superboy finishes our argument with “Then show us that you do trust us. It’s simple, get on board or get out of the way.”

We turn our backs on the League and see the moon rise. Batman growls and announces to us “Fine. Give me three days.”

Without even turning back to him, I respond with “Glad to hear it.” and I hear Superboy go “Where am I supposed to stay? I don’t have a home.” to which he is met with my response of “You can stay at my place until we get you sorted out.”

“Thank you, Chimera.”

As we watch the moon rise from the horizon, Miss Martian voices our thoughts with “You know, I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.” and I couldn’t agree more with what she said.

**???**

**July 11th, 2010**

Ocean Master watches Guardian announcing Cadmus’ new mission statement and asks “Can the Light afford to leave Guardian in charge without the G-Gnomes?” and is met with a “We have subtle means of control.” from Luthor, who continues with “What concerns me is the children. We now know the League is employing young heroes to do their dirty work. Tch, that's a dark twist."

A tall, muscular male known to many as Vandal Savage goes“Yes, but one that can be played to our advantage. Even the temporary loss of the weapon can prove useful.”

“Apologies, but what about _Le Chimére_? The _technologie_ he uses to transform into _extraterrestes_ is very _utile_ for our _objectif_.”

“Then we shall make him see the Light."


	3. New Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the third chapter! I'm not sure if I got Superboy's or Hawkman's characterization right, but I refuse to work on this chapter any longer so here you go.

**S.T.A.R Labs Taos**

**July 4th, 2010 16:30 MDT**

An annoyed “Why are we doing this?” rings in my ears while I read a book in S.T.A.R Labs Taos’ Zeta scanning office.

Turning away from a S.T.A.R Labs provided copy of _Altered Egos: The Mystery Men of World War II_ by John Law, I look at Superboy who is currently surrounded by scientists using various pieces of lab equipment.

“Well, you need access to use the Zeta tubes, so S.T.A.R Labs is scanning you to make sure they can register you into the directory without a problem.”

I get an annoyed “Isn’t there a more private location to do this?” as a response.

“The only other location I know of is the Batcave, and given Batman’s justified concerns, you’re not allowed inside. I was only allowed access to it due to the circumstances at the time.”

It’s at this point I hear a random scientist go “You got access to Batman’s secret base?!”.

As soon as that scientist says that out loud, I get flooded by scientists who ask me various questions about the Batcave. Trying to stop them by going “Hey, Hey! Calm down! I can only say that it was very cavey and filled with all of Batman’s tools.” fails despite my best efforts.

Just as I nearly drown in a sea of scientists, A harsh “Enough! We are members of the Erdel Initiative, so act befitting your position or else you will be suspended for unprofessional conduct!” is projected throughout the room and the scientists stop and head back to their stations.

Turning to the presumed direction of the voice, I see a middle aged man of Hispanic descent, about 5”8’ with black hair, a black goatee and brown eyes. He turns to Superboy and I, greeting us with “Hello, Chimera and Superboy. I am Doctor Eduardo Dorado, the Director of the Erdel Initative. I would like to apologize for the behavior of my fellow staff members as they can get a bit passionate about the Batcave Zeta Tube.”

I respond with a courteous “It’s no problem at all. After all, Batman is known for his paranoia.”

Superboy, with curiousity expressed through his left eyebrow rising, asks “Really?” to which I respond with a sincere “Really.”

With a surprised “Huh.” Superboy (who I should try getting into accepting Connor as a name) asks, “How long are these scans going to take? I feel a bit of a growling going on in my stomach.”

Director Dorrado replies with “We just finished our scans. Give us a few minutes to put it in the Zeta database, and you’ll be able to use the Zeta Network.”

I respond with a polite “Nice. Now, where’s the cafeteria? I’m feeling a bit peckish as well.”

“It’s the only room on the first floor with double doors. You can’t miss it.”

Upon hearing the response, I reply with “Thank you for letting us know. Now, where can I return this fascinating read?”

“You can give the book to me and I’ll make sure it heads to the owner.”

“Thank you.”

After I return the book to Director Dorrance, Superboy and I decide to exit the room and use the elevator to enter the first floor. While inside, Superboy sighs and asks me “Do you know why Superman was so harsh towards me? I don’t know much about the Justice League beyond ‘Once they interfere with Cadmus, they must die.’, ‘They are the world’s greatest heroes and as such, a threat to our plans’, their resources, capabilites, and psychological assessments done by Dr. Odessa Vexman.”

I ponder his question and respond with “Well, I think it’s because of how he feels violated. He essentially discovered he had a kid without his consent, and as such acts hostile due to the kid (which is you) due to representing bad experiences towards him.” Thank god I learned about that sort of stuff months before I got here, otherwise that would have turned out a lot differently.

As the elevator dings and the door opens, Superboy responds with a “That’s what I was wondering about. Thank you, Chimera.”

“You’re welcome.”

We walk down the stark white halls of S.T.A.R Labs Taos and find open double doors. Right next to those double doors is one of those collapsable chalkboards with various foodstuffs appropriate to the region written on it in chalk.

I look at it and go “I’m thinking of going with some Tamales. You?”

Superboy suddenly looks like he made his decision.“I’m going with a Chorizo.”

A polite “Alright, let’s go get our food.” from me is all we need to enter the double doors.

Inside we see a standard cafeteria: One wall has foodstuffs in trays behind glass with chefs serving it to scientists and other staff holding trays on metal rails and the other walls are surrounded by those tables where it’s one long thin piece of plastic as a table with two narrow pieces of plastic acting as seats. Superboy and I stand in line and we get our food and drinks. After I pay the cashier in cash, we sit down at one of the available tables and eat our food. While doing so, we hear a “Hello there.” from a redheaded female scientist wearing a lab coat, black shirt, blue jeans and a necklace. “I’m Dr. Jenet Klyburn, head of S.T.A.R Labs Taos’ department of Zetabiology. Can I ask you something, Chimera?”

I flash a smile at her. “First, can I ask a question?”

Her face beams up in interest as she goes “Sure! What is it?”

“What is Zetabiology?”

A confused expression appears on Doctor Klyburn’s face. “How do you not know what Zetabiology is? You came to this universe through a wormhole breaching the multiverse.”

Time for the ‘discrepancy in the origin story’ excuse. “That was an accident. My universe is decades behind in regards to most fields of science that isn’t related to Zeta tubes. Not to mention, I was merely an intern in college working on his IT Tech major doing some minor data checking for cash and good records before my arrival here.”

A pout that could be interpreted at disappointment for not being able to get knowledge from an alternate universe crosses Dr. Klyburn’s face. “Ah. That’s a shame. To answer your question, Zetabiology is the study of biological reactions to Zeta Radiation.”

“Interesting. You can go ahead and ask your question, by the way.”

“Is it possible for us to get scans of your alien forms so that you don’t have to detransform to access the Zeta Network?”

Thinking over it, I go “Sure, but not today. I promised Superboy here that I would take him to my home to stay for a bit and I don’t want him to get impatient.”

“I see. Are there any methods that I can use to contact you?”

“Well, I’m told by Green Lantern-the one that founded the Justice League and my mentor- that if anybody needs to contact a member of the League or their associates-for example, me- they are to call this number. Do you have a pen so I can write it down?”

Doctor Klyburn goes into her lab coat pocket, grabs something, and she gives me one of those pens where you twist the top to write. I grab a nearby napkin and write down the number used to contact the League hotline and hand it over to her. “Here. Use this to contact the person answering the line, and by extension me when you have a possible alternative date.”

She takes the napkin and replies with a “Thank you.” before walking away and heading somewhere else in the building. With that done, Superboy asks me “Did you really give her the number you said you were going to give her?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

“I imagined that you would give her a dead number to discourage her from calling you.”

My face briefly spurts out a confused and shocked expression. “That would be rude. I gave her the number of the League hotline so that I wouldn’t have to risk my identity for whatever reason she called me, whether it be for a date or if she actually wanted to scan my forms into the Zeta database.”

“So you gave her the number of the League hotline so that the person answering it would deal with her instead of you?”

“Pretty much.”

“Huh. That’s a clever idea.”

“Glad to hear it. Now, do you want to head to my home once we’re done eating?”

“Sure.”

We finish our food and once we’re done, we decide to head to floor 3 as it is the location of the Zeta Tube. A female scientist of asian descent with black hair, a white lab coat, round glasses and green eyes goes to us and says “Ah, you must be the two sidekicks-.” to which Supes replies with “ _Don’t_ call us sidekicks.”

“Sorry about that. You must be the two proteges that requested a scan for the Zeta database.”

It’s at this point I speak up with “Well, I requested one for him. I already did a scan, and I’m here to keep an eye on this guy to make sure he doesn’t do anything too impulsive.”

The scientist adjusts her glasses in light of this new info. “Well then, I am Doctor Tracy Simmons. Do you understand how to use the Zeta Network, Superboy?”

“Not really.”

“It’s very easy. You stand here” here being the front of the tube “and choose where you want to go from the tablet. Once the tube spins, you walk in and you’ll arrive at your destination. Any questions?”

“Yeah. How long does transporting us from one location to another take?”

As if this was common fact, Doctor Simmons replies “About a minute overall.”

“Thank you.”

Doctor Simmons asks “Do you have any other questions?” to which I respond with “Nope.” and Superboy responds with “No.”

“Alright then. Go ahead and activate the Zeta Tube to head to Coast City.”

I turn to Doctor Simmons and I tell her goodbye with “I’ll see you around.” before turning to Superboy and going “After you.”

Without a doubt, Superboy enters the destination in the tablet and we Zeta across several states.

**Coast City**

**July 4th, 2010 16:02 PDT**

As we exit the alleyway, I announce “Welcome to Coast City!” before subduing myself. “So, what do you think?”

Superboy takes a moment to look around the street from the alley. “It looks nice. For some reason that I can’t explain, it smells of sand and saltwater around the area.”

Hmm. Didn’t know he developed super senses. I’ll have to ask Stewart to do a bioscan when everything’s up and running. “Oh, that’s because of the nearby beach. If you want, we can spend a few hours there while you’re with me. Just don’t make it today. It’s the Fourth of July and many people are there celebrating the holiday.”

“Okay. But I thought we were going to your home?”

“We are. I’m just going somewhere private to change.”

Pointing to a rooftop near the alley, Superboy goes “Is that roof okay?”

“It’s a bit too close for my purposes, as I don’t want people to put two and two together and find out that this alley has a Zeta Tube. If word gets out, then this location is compromised. Besides,” I point to a rooftop that I’ve been using for such purposes, “that rooftop is much better.”

“But how will you go there?”

“With one of my forms.”

Looking around to see nobody watching, I dial in my Arachnichimp form Spider-Monkey (I couldn’t think of a better name) and push down the dial to feel the energy used in the Omnitrix’s transformation processes. My eyes become six purely green eyes, my hair becomes similar to that of Beast’s from the X-Men, I grow a monkey’s tail with two white stripes, and my nose changes shape. While this is all happening, I grow blue fur, I lose two fingers and toes on each hand and foot, and my body changes to become more monkey-like. Once the change is done, I climb up to a nearby rooftop and shoot webs from my tail to stealthly swing to the rooftop that I saved for such purposes before I detransform.

After detransforming, I look around on the ground and comment to myself “As always, this is the perfect spot to change.” And it really is! The area in town is mostly isolated, the owners of the building rarely use the roof, and there’s even a stairway from the roof down to the alleyway. I pull my half-cowled jacket off and stuff it inside of a gym bag hidden in some panels in the roof of the stairway. The armored T-Shirt I’m wearing is turned inside out into a plain black Shirt with barely a stitch or tag shown, and I switch out my uniform shoes for my civilian shoes kept inside the bag. Once done, I head to the sidewalk and see Superboy there. He takes one good look at me and whispers “Is a simple wardrobe change good enough to fool everybody into thinking you’re not as ordinary as you make yourself out to be, Chimera?”

I shrug and go “Apparently so. Granted, I don’t have much of a social life outside of my ‘job’, and I’m not one to easily make friends even back home. Also, call me Ezekial or Zeke when out of costume.”

“Huh. Thanks for telling me that, Chi-Ezekial. Speaking of which, is your background true?”

“What do you mean by background?”

“Your origin.”

“It’s very loosely based on what actually happened, with the truth to the falsifications best kept private.”

The official League provided and supported backstory for me is that I came from an alternate universe without any heroes, magic or known alien life and I managed to find the Omnitrix while there, keeping it secret by not using it at all. However, due to an accident at the laboratory I was working at as an intern, I got transported to this universe and was found by Green Lantern 2814-A (Hal Jordan) upon arrival. He would provide the necessities of life in exchange for me learning about the Omnitrix and becoming a hero while under the Green Lanterns.

“Good to know. Now, where’s your home?”

“Follow me. We’ll spend a few hours there before celebrating Independence Day. Does that sound like a plan?”

“It does.”

**Casa De Ezekial**

**July 4th, 2010 18:00 PDT**

After the long day we had, I decided that Superboy and I should go out and celebrate the Fourth of July by watching the fireworks while in the park. I check up on Supes, who’s now wearing shoes, pants, a shirt and a hoodie from my wardrobe. I ask him “Are you ready?” and I get a tact “Obviously.” in response.

“Alright, I got the blanket and the snacks. Let’s go!”

We head out of my home and head to nearby Marz Park. Once there, I drop the blanket in a uncrowed section of the park and sit down on it with my companion. About fifteen minutes after we sit down, a fireworks display begins and bathes the sky in rainbow colors.

Seeing as this is Supes’ first time seeing fireworks, I ask him “So, what do you think?”

“What do I think about what?”

“The fireworks!”

Superboy shrugs and responds with “I think they’re nice, but they’re something that Cadmus wouldn’t show me if I stayed with them so that makes it a lot better than it actually is.”

“Seems like you’re happy about it.”

“I sure am.”

I smile quietly as we watch the fireworks display while eating the snacks I brought. After we get home, both of us decide to sleep the night away after a shower and dinner made by me.

**Casa De Ezekial**

**July 5th, 2010 07:37 PDT**

Waking up from my couch turned bed, I head to my bedroom and check on my bed, expecting to see a sleeping alien/human hybrid, only to see the bed untouched. I then check the closet and see a sleeping Superboy. Shaking him awake, I go “Morning!”

“Morning.”

“Why are you sleeping in my closet?”

“Not used to sleeping in a bed. Your closet reminds me of my Cadmus Pod, except for the funny smells.”

Semi-insulted, I tell him “Hey! I do laundry once a week!”

“The smells are still stuck within the closet.”

“I’ll put ‘aromatherapy’ on my to-do list then.”

“I don’t know what that is, but please do so.”

After changing into some casual clothes, I follow Superboy downstairs. Seeing him sit at the dining table, I ask him “So, what do you want for breakfast?”

“Make whatever you feel like.”

“Omlettes it is then.”

I grab two bowls and lay them on the countertop before grabbing six eggs from the fridge and crack them open, making sure that three egg yolks go into one bowl and the other three go into another bowl. Once done, I mix the yolks and add some garlic salt to the mix. After that, I grab two pans and fill both of them with coconut oil and smother the pans with it before I grab the contents of both bowls and pour them into the pans, one per pan. Turning on the stove, I wait for a few minutes before turning it off once the omlettes are finished. I then grab two sets of silverware and two plates and put one omlette on each of them. I grab my plate and hand Supes his and we both spend the next few minutes eating our breakfast in silence. Once done, I put all of our silverware into the sink to clean for later.

As if he were an experienced food critic, Superboy reviews my omlette with “Hmm. I like the omlette. It’s a bit fluid, but the flavour is very delicious even if it is a bit greasy.”

“But this is better than what you previously ate, right?”

“It _is_ my first breakfast. Cadmus never really made eat anything outside of the nutrients outside of their IV drops.”

I think about what he said and ask “...How did Cadmus get an IV tube into your body? You have Kryptonian DNA and the invunerability that comes with it!”

He pauses and goes “I don’t know.”

“Huh.” After this little talk, I check my mail and I see an envelope with a debit card and a note saying “For Expenses” followed by a little bat icon on the bottom.

“Hey Supes, want to go clothes shopping?”

“It’s not like I got anything better to do. What could go wrong?”

I yell at him somewhat disapprovingly. “Don’t say that!”

“Why should I not say that?”

**Coast City Mall**

**July 5th, 2010 08:16 PDT**

I point to Solomon Grundy while in my Chimera uniform and I tell Superboy (who’s now wearing the iconic black shirt with Superman logo and jeans) “That’s why you shouldn’t say ‘what could go wrong?’ as a superhero!”

“That’s good to know.”

So, here’s what happened since we went out to the mall: Superboy bought himself seven black T-shirts with a red House of El coat of arms on it as well as seven pairs of jeans, all of which are also identical. We finished paying for the clothes and decided to head back home to see if the clothes fit, only for Solomon Grundy to burst in through the front doors, rampaging like a bull in a bullfight. I then immediately headed to a blindspot in the cameras and changed into my uniform before heading back to where I was previously.

After looking at our rampaging zombie brute, Superboy informs me that he’s going in and jumps into the battle before I could inform him about the fact that Solomon Grundy is magic-fuelled and as such, theoretically capable of bypassing a Kryptonian’s invunerability.

Looking over the railing, I see an angry half-kryptonian duelling it out with a muscle bound corpse in tuxedo rags. Seeing a moment to attack, I transform into my Segmentasapien form, Construct. I grow 3 feet in height, my body changes its biochemistry from carbon to an organic silicon with quasiorganic polymer skin. My body breaks down into various building blocks that are either red, blue or yellow with black lines preventing the blocks from bonding to each other at a molecular level. Studs adorn my body and the Omnitrix appears on my chest as I develop a hunch from my weight.

As soon as the transformation finishes, I jump down and shift my arms into cannons with rectangular holes and giant building blocks being fed into the cannons. After a few seconds of loading the canons, A rapid burst of organic building blocks are fired at the rampaging zombie. I hear a struggling Superboy ask “Who’s this guy?”

“I call him Construct. He’s capable of somewhat limited shapeshifting, is super strong and durable compared to humans, not to mention he has a hell of a healing factor.”

“Glad-” A punch from Solomon Grundy hits Supes’ chin “-to-” Another punch aimed at the chest “-hear-” a punch at the shoulder “-tha _aaaat_!!!” A punch from Grundy lands on Superboy’s privates, causing him to scream in pain. Seeing that the powerhouse is in no condition to even fight, I make a little basket on my back, put him in it and I shapeshift holes for his arms and legs. Once that’s done, I shapeshift one of my arms into a shield and I turn another one of my arms into a hammer, intent on pounding Grundy until help arrives. I rapidly move said hammer arm, repeatedly saying “Gotosleepgotosleepgotosleep!” only to see that Grundy is barely hurt. Deciding to change tactics, I decide to turn myself into a spherical cage to trap Grundy in and I check up on Supes, who seems to have recovered from his groin punch. Moving my head towards him, I go “Hey. How are you doing?”

“A little sore right here,” with a finger pointing at his privates “but other than that, I’m fine. How did he negate my invunerability?”

“He’s a magic-powered corpse, and magic can bypass a Kryptonian’s nigh-invunerability. Now, how do you feel about a rematch with Solomon Grundy?”

A somewhat bloodythirsty smirk crosses Superboy’s face. “Count me in.”

I open up a little section of my cage big enough for any human to walk in or out. As Superboy walks into the cage, I close up and all of a sudden I hear lots of fists flying and what I presume is Grundy being smacked around. Childing the two brawlers inside, I go “Hey! Keep it down in there, please! The walls are made up of my body, y’know!”

Eventually, a “Done!” from Superboy rings throughout the cage and I shift back into my normal Segmentasapien form before I hit the Omnitrix, transforming back to human.

I see an unawake Grundy and while panting, I go “Well, at least we managed to knock him unconscious.”

It’s at this point a green bubble forms over Grundy’s unconscious body and two shadows go ahead and cover both of us teens. Turning around, I see Superman with his arms crossed and Hal Jordan in his Green Lantern uniform towering over us.

Seeing the mess we made, Green Lantern frowns and goes “How did you two get into trouble already? It’s been less than 24 hours since you exposed Cadmus!” before he smirks and congratulates us with “I’m impressed. Not a lot of inexperienced capes manage to knock Grundy unconscious without suffering injuries that make Superboy’s minor.”

The frown returns on his face as he scolds me with “However, I expect you to see John Stewart and Guy Gardner for training at the usual spot today, Chimera. I won’t be able to make it today, so I called up my fellow Lanterns to do the training session this week. John brought the Hawks over so that you can get your Thanagarian form and have some practice with it. Oh, and take Superboy with you. While his powers might be limited under most conditions, John mentions that he and Guy have ideas for a training regimen designed to test what he can and cannot do.”

With as much sarcasm as I can muster, I go “Lovely.”

“Hey, look on the bright side. At least there were no casualties or hospitalizations required. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to secure Grundy.”

It’s at this point Superboy speaks up with “Wait, before you go, how’s Batman doing?”

“Give him time. He’ll need two more days to finish working on your problem.” His smile turns kind as he goes “Do you have any other questions? If not, I’m done.”

Speaking for the both of us, I go “I think I’m good.”

“Same.”

“Well then, we’ll be off!” And just like that, Green Lantern, Superman and the green bubble of light containing Grundy fly off into the distance.

I hear a “Well, that was interesting.” from my compatriot who continues vocalizing his thoughts with “Since when do you have a Thanagarian form?”

“I don’t have one _yet_. I guess that tonight’s training session is punishment, and they’re doing it the most brutal way they can.”

As if the universe has a sense of irony, Superboy goes “Lovely.”

Chuckling, I respond with “You read my mind.”

A look of confusion adorns Superboy’s face. “I don’t have telepathy.”

I promptly do a facepalm. “It’s a figure of speech. You know what those are, right?”

“Yes.”

“‘You read my mind’ is a figure of speech.”

“I see.”

“Well then, do you have any other questions?”

“I don’t have any.”

Oh, thank god. I didn’t realize I’d be dealing with my own superpowered Rook Blonko here. Composing myself, I go “Well, let me know if you have any.”

“I’ll do so.”

**The Usual Training Spot**

**July 5th, 2010 17:10 PDT**

After a long walk, I move my hands around the empty field and go “Welcome to my training spot. Any questions?”

“Why didn’t you drive us here?”

Scratching my neck, I embaressly mutter “I can’t drive. Never learned how to.”

“Why?”

“Didn’t feel like I needed it back home.”

“How old are you?”

“Eighteen, why?”

Before we can continue on my lack of driving capability, the flapping of large winds followed by green light comes from above us. Straining our necks (or at least mine), we see Hawkman followed by Lanterns Gardner and Stewart descend down from the sky. As he lands, Hawkman sees me and mutters “So, you’re the Chimera. I heard the horror stories from J’onn J’onzz. What did you _do_ to him?”

In the most monotone voice one can expect to get from me, Hawkman gets the reply of “I used my Martian form.” from me.

He scoffs, voicing his disbelief with “You’re kidding, right? He went on for some time that you turned into a demon.”

As if it were fact, I reply with “A Martian unafraid of fire is like that.”

“Do I want to know what you did to him?”

The two lanterns and I respond with “No.”

“But J’onn isn’t”

“No!”

Sulking, Hawkman goes “Fine.” before switching back to a professional tone “Moving on, are you ready for Thanagarian Wingmen training?”

Smirking, I reply with “Despite the fact that it sounds like we’re going to support our friends romantically, Born ready.”

I hear a “Why does every human make jokes about the name?” under Hawkman’s breath before he goes back to being a professional soldier with “Alright. So, how are you going to scan me?”

“Omnitrix, scan uncatalogued DNA.”

A beep comes from the Omnitrix and it goes “ _Affirmative_.” before all the green circuits turn yellow and a beam of the same color shoots out of the core and moves up and down on Hawkman before disappearing. I then hear “ _Unknown species scanned. Please identify the name of the species._ ”

God, I hated reprogramming the scan functions to make sure recognition of the names of the species the Omnitrix scanned were accurate, but if Azmuth wants me to use the Omnitrix, then I’ll use it like it was meant to be used regardless or not if he knows about me. “An individual of the species is known as Thanagarian.”

“ _Understood._ ”

In the space of a few seconds, all of the yellow circuitry turns back to green and the dial pops up, with the head of my Thanagarian form selected in between my Martian form and my Cerebrocrustacean form, Brainstorm (Once again I couldn’t think up of anything really unique, so the canon name stuck).

“Alright, here goes.”

I push the dial down and I feel nothing much aside from my skin and bones becoming denser, my sensory organs becoming more finely tuned, and two feathered wings growing out of my back with bones to support them. Once the transformation ends, I look over myself and I see a cuirass with the Omnitrix in the center and a red hawk helmet covering my head. The rest of my body seems to be covered in my Chimera uniform if it was designed as Thanagarian military armor.

Once done, I yell out “ **Hawkdown**!” before asking my esteemed instructor “Alright, how do you want to do this?”

“I was thinking that we would go ahead and spar continuously until one of us backs down or time runs out. After that, I’ll train you in Thanagarian military techniques. Am I clear?”

Nodding my head, I respond with “Crystal.” and I kick things off with a double flying punch. Unfortunately, Hawkman sees this coming and grabs both of my fists and pushes them away from me. “Nice try, but I’m a captain of the Thanagarian Wingmen. It’ll take a lot more than that to put a dent into me.”

“Well then, let’s see you handle this!” ‘This’ turns out to be me using Torquasm-Rao to enter the theta state, the state the mind goes through during meditation. And with it, my capacity to feel pain is reduced and the two hemispheres of my brain are more synchronized with one another. Glancing over at Hawkman, I hear “What’s ‘this’ supposed to be?”

Without a second’s notice, I do a Taekwondo axe kick followed by a Muay Thai jab and a block to counteract whatever punches he may pull. I smirk for a bit, only for Hawkamn to dodge the kick and the jab and bypasses my block by hitting me in the helmet. Sensing my moment of shock, Hawkman punches me right in the jaw, knocking me down for the count. “Not going to lie, you did good, but you could do better.”

I check my jaw for damage. “I know that, that’s why you’re here. Well, that and to punish me.”

A smirk grows on Hawkman’s face. “Let’s not argue over semantics.”

“Are Thanagarians always really thirsty for blood?”

“Not at all, I’m just really in the mood. Now, shall we begin your Wingman training?”

“Let’s go!”

Little did I know that those words would become the prelude to some of the worst hours of training I ever had, and that’s counting the mishaps with my Martian form and creating a regimen for mastering the Omnitrix and all of its very advanced quirks.

**Casa De Ezekial**

**July 5th, 2010 22:32 PDT**

After two and a half hours, I managed to get the basics of Wingmen training down, despite the brutality of the beginner stages. While I thought I went to hell, Superboy went through several. While I was learning basic Wingmen training, Supes was being assessed and trained in martial arts by John Stewart and provoked into anger through the creative use of a Green Lantern Ring by Guy Gardner to teach him to stay calm. By the end of his training, he was a raging, sweating mess.

Currently, we are at my home, both of us clad in Pyjamas and sitting on the couch watching a detective movie from the 1940s titled Nothing Left To Lose, starring famous actor Carver Colman. After the credits roll, I ask my roommate “So, you finally calmed down?”

“Yeah.”

“And what did we learn?”

“That Guy Gardner is an obnoxious showboat?”

I frown at my roommate. “Besides that.”

“That I should keep my calm to make sure I can use the full extent of my wits?”

“Bingo.”

Looking contemplative, Superboy responds with “I’ll try my best. I don’t think I’ll be able to do so, though.”

“As long as you can try, that’s good enough for me.”

“Thank you, Zeke.”

“It’s no problem. After all, I did help naïve alien youth before, as I’m sure you know.” As far as I knew, he didn’t but I decided to drop that casually for the hell of it.

Superboy, confused, questions me with a “I didn’t know that. Who was the first person who you helped?”

“Miss Martian. She was told to spend some time with me in order to learn some Earth ettiqute. Given the difference before her arrival here and after, I think it’s safe to say that she got the lessons I taught her drilled into her head.”

“Hmm.”

I head to my room upstairs. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be going to sleep.”

Turning around, I see Superboy following me. “I guess I better go to sleep as well.”

**Coast City Beach**

**July 6th, 2010 10:55 PST**

After seeing the warm weather and the forecast for today, I decided that today was going to be a beach day. When I told Supes about my plans, he told me that he wanted to join in. Minutes of packing and one walk later, we arrived at the beach and set up our stuff in a perfect spot, not too far from the water nor to the bathrooms or trash. It’s now half an hour since then, and we’re now making sandcastles.

While we’re in the middle of making one, Supes asks me “Hey Ezekial? Can I ask you something?”

With a wry smile, I go “You just did.”

Disappointment appears on his face. “Oh.”

“You can still ask me what you wanted to say.”

The disappointment on his face turns to enjoyment. “Do you think I’ll be a great hero?”

“Undoubtedly.” And that’s just from what I’ve seen from the few days we’ve known each other. From what my metaknowledge tells me, he’ll become one hell of a hero and a potential contender of suceeding Superman if all goes well. “Even some of the greatest heroes have their own flaws.”

“Thank you for telling me that.”

“It’s no problem. Now, shall we make sandcastles?”

“Sure.”

In the end, we made a somewhat decent sandcastle for our first attempt. I took a picture of it and sent it to M’gann and a group chat that I was invited to by Robin and Kid Flash (with SB’s blessing, of course).

A few minutes after the text(s) were sent, I received an ‘awwww, so jealous you got to go to the beach!’ from M’gann and a few texts filled with injokes and jealousy from a group chat made of me, Robin and Kid Flash. Those texts themselves went something along the lines of:

Thunderstruck (Kid Flash): Hey, how come you got to go to the beach?!

Me: Because I live by myself.

Thunderstruck: How?

Me: Emancipation, a stock portfolio, an ‘inheritance’, oversimplication of the stock market and a few patents I made for a startup that I’m going to sell.

Thunderstruck: Hold on! Since when did you get a startup running?!

I briefly talk about Wally’s odd priorities before replying.

Me: About two weeks from my arrival. I doodle down patents for advanced technologies that I make when I’m Brainstorm and sell the rights to use them to certain companies. Once I deem the worth of the startup to be enough to keep me financially stable for a while, I’ll sell it.

Birdbrain (Robin): Who’re you selling to?

Me: Two companies who I believe will use the technology positively: Wayne Enterprises or Kord Industries.

Birdbrain: Why those two? I get trust, but why not others like AmerTech, for example?

Me: Given the fact that AmerTech is known primarily for Military Development, I feel that it would be best to go with somebody who isn’t interested in weaponization of science. And some of my ideas are certainly lethal if weaponized.

Birdbrain: You’re not interested in weaponization?

Me: Why would I? I’m not that kind of guy. I want to _help_ people.

Thunderstruck: At least we know where your priorites are.

After this point, the text conversation degenerated into injokes that I didn’t get. Sighing, I put my phone away in my pocket, which attracts the attention of a curious SB.

“What’s the sigh for?”

“Just the reaction to a few texts made by two of our mutual friends.”

“What did they say?”

“They made a bunch of injokes that I didn’t understand.”

“That shouldn’t result in you feeling left out.”

“I’m not in their injokes.”

“And that explains it.”

“Don’t misinterpret what I’m saying. I’m glad that I know some people that I can call my friends, one of them being you.”

Somewhat surprised, Superboy replies with “You think that I’m your friend?”

I shrug my shoulders to answer his question. “Well yeah, we did some things that most people would do only with their friends.”

“Well, if that’s the case, then you’re my friend as well.”

I smirk at my newly made friend. “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

“Is that a reference to something?”

“I think it’s from Casablanca, a movie made and released in the 1940s. Never watched the movie, though. It is considered one of the greatest movies of all time by many, though I’m not sure why.”

“Can we watch it later?”

“If it exists”. I ignore Superboy’s odd reaction as I continue on with “I’m thinking of having a movie night with the rest of our friends once our social club becomes official.” I realize what I just said and backtrack with “Well, as official as our ‘benefactor’ makes it out to be.” with airquotes done on benefactor.

“Is that a problem?”

“Probably. Not sure why.”

“That… doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.”

“To be fair, I only have two months worth of practical experience. What can I say?”

“You can say a lot.”

I mustered up my most stoic face possible.“That was a figure of speech.”

“How many figures of speech are there?”

“There are quite a lot of them out there in the English language.”

“Has anybody managed to list them all?”

“Knowing people, it’s not gonna happen. People make up figures of speeches every so often.”

“That’s a shame. They really are quite useful.”

“I know, right?”

“Right. Now, how long will getting set up take?”

“It’ll be done tomorrow. Batman’s doing a whole speech and everything to officially begin our team.”

“Good. While I enjoy your company, I do miss seeing our friends. Should I call them that?”

“I think you should. After all, friends help each other out in tight spots. Not to mention, they are all standup people who would put their own lives on the line to help others. And some of them have already done so multiple times.”

With a mixture of bitterness and hope, Superboy responds to my comment with “Sounds like what Superman would do.”

In a mentorlike tone, I tell Superboy “Indeed. Superman, after all, is a shining beacon of hope who represents the best values of humanity despite not being human at all except in terms of humanity. Whereas most people save lives as their job and get paid for it, Superman does so without anything other than his own abilities for no reason other than helping others. Not to mention, Superman does other things like public appearances in order to reassure others about him.”

“Is that why a lot of people like Superman?”

“I would say that would be the reason why a majority of humanity admires Superman. Don’t you agree?”

“I do.”

“Glad to hear it. Now let’s stop talking about superheroes and enjoy the beach.”

“Easy for you to say. How are we going to continue with it?”

“By just clearing our minds and doing nothing at all unless we have to.”

“Okay then.”

In the end, we spent several hours on the beach before packing up and heading back home at 4 PM. Once there, I made lunch and breakfast for tomorrow. Around 6 PM, both of us fell asleep to make sure we were well rested as we were going to be waking up very early tomorrow.

**Casa De Ezekial**

**July 7th, 2010 4:30 PDT**

In clothes one would expect for a casual meeting with friends, I shake a sleeping Superboy awake from his slumber in my closet, which he sleeps in despite my previous attempts at teaching him how to use a bed.

Hiding my tiredness, I tell the Kryptonian clone “Hey, c’mon man! We’re gonna be late!”

A grumpy Superboy growls “Late for what?!”

I ask him “Don’t you remember? Our meeting with the mentors for the team.”

Superboy’s mood goes into a total 180 as he recognizes just what exactly am I talking about. “Oh, yeah!”

“Glad to see that you remember. Now, breakfast has already been made for you. It’s french toast and a cup of tea, so don’t worry about the quality of breakfast. Once we’re done, we’re going to head to the Zeta tube in the alleyway in our civilian clothes to head to the base, so don’t worry about the fact that I’m not wearing my Chimera uniform. After that, you’ll be moving into the base full time.”

Upon hearing this possible betrayal of trust, an angry yet quiet “Why?” comes from my soon-to-be former roommate.

I put my finger on my roommate’s lips and I shush him before continuing with “It wasn’t my idea, it was Batman’s. Besides, you need to learn certain things and moving into the base makes it easier for you to approach most of those things with ease, as it’s located near a high school that we can enroll you in as soon as possible. Not to mention, I have online classes from Coast City University starting this September, so I have that to deal with as well. To make a long story short, living on your own is mutually beneficial to the both of us, as we can divide our attention between our responsibilities without compromising ourselves.”

Superboy calms down and nods his head. “Makes sense, but you could have said it a bit better.”

“To be fair, socialization is not a strength of mine. Not to mention, I never had to tell somebody that they’re moving against their will.”

“Okay, I see why you discussed the subject like that.”

“Yeah. Now go ahead and eat your breakfast then get changed into your clothes. We have about half an hour before the meeting starts.”

“Shouldn’t you eat yours as well?”

Smugly, I reply with “I already made mine.”

“How did you do that?”

Exasperated, I go “It was just french toast. You just make toast and dump some batter on it.” Seriously, French toast is just bread battered in eggs and milk. Why did Cadmus deem the culinary arts and socialization unnecessary parts of Superboy’s telepathic education?

“When did you make it?”

“I made it last night after you went to sleep, just so that we can have an easily made breakfast.”

“You are crazy to make breakfast at nighttime.”

“Craziness is practically a requirement in this job of ours. After all, we’re people with extraordinary abilites, training and/or technology helping the law by apprehending various criminals with access to similar resources that police and other mundane law enforcement agencies cannot handle without lots of lives lost, excessive lethal force or violating the laws that they swore to uphold.”

A glimmer of understanding? resigned acceptance? appears on Superboy’s face, despite having been a superhero for only a few days. “Alright, I guess I can see that.”

“Good. Now, eat your breakfast and get changed. We’ll head to the Zeta Tube once we’re done getting ready. Does that sound good?”

“It does.”

“Alright, let’s do this!”

**Mount Justice**

**July 7th, 2010 7:45 EDT**

“Recognized: Chimera B-0-4, Superboy B-0-6.”

After Superboy ate his breakfast and changed into his clothes, we went out and walked to the alleyway containing the Zeta Tube, stopping a mugging along the way. Just now, we entered the Zeta Tube and stepped into what I presume is Mount Justice. In it, we see a metal platform below a _very_ large metal tube which probably has some sort of purpose besides appearance. What attracts my curiosity is the hatch on the roof of the room, presumably an entrance of some kind?

I get distracted from my thoughts when I see Lantern Stewart and Captain Atom fly around with large pieces of equipment, Stewart using his ring and the good Captain using his raw energy enhanced muscles to carry the equipment. Suddenly, out of nowhere childish giggling rings throughout the room followed by a “Feeling the aster yet?” from Robin who suddenly appears from the metal tube along with Batman.

A look of shock mixed with annoyance quickly appears on my face as I hear myself go “How the _fuck_ do you do your stealth thing?”

A harsh “Language!” comes from Batman as a sunglasses wearing Robin goes “A magician never reveals his secrets!”

“I’m pretty sure you could be qualified as one given your stealth capabilities.”

“Heh. Good one.”

As the computer chimes “Recognized: Aqualad B-0-2, Aquaman 0-6, Miss Martian B-0-5, Martian Manhunter 0-7, Green Lantern A 0-5”, all four of us turn to the two Zeta Tubes behind us. The one on the left spews out the two Martians and my mentor who comes up to me and says “Sorry I’m late. Had to help out the Martians with some legal stuff involving Miss Martian back on Mars.”

I brush off his worries with “It’s OK, I understand. Bureaucracy is nuts and I’m speaking from experience.”

“Really? How come?”

“It’s a long story.”

Before anybody else can question me, Aqualad speaks up suddenly “Let’s not discuss any matters that could be personal to Chimera.”

Everybody present decides to agree about not forcing me to share something personal, and we all sit in silence for about a minute before I go “So, uh, where’s Flash and Kid Flash?”

An expaserated “Both of them are running late. _Again_.” from Green Lantern Jordan is all I get as a response. Seriously, how is a speedster incapable of arriving on time?

Several minutes later, the computer speaks up with “Recognized: Flash 0-4, Kid Flash B-0-3.” and everybody not named Batman, Martian Manhunter, Aqualad or Aquaman groans in annoyance at the speedster duo’s late arrival. Kid Flash, upon seeing our reactions, goes “Oh come on! How are we always late?!” to which I respond with “That’s what I asked!”

A curt “Enough. We have work to do here.” sets us straight. He continues with “We will begin once Black Canary arrives.” After he finishes speaking, the hatch above us opens as Red Tornado flies down with a… Well, red tornado covering his legs. Joining him from the hatch is Hawkman and Captain Marvel/Shazam. The computer announces in its female tone “Recognized: Black Canary 1-3.”

As the adults walk in front of us, Batman kicks things off. “Good to see everybody’s here. Now we can begin.” Bats pauses for a few seconds presumably to let the adults get into position before continuing with “This cave was the original secret sanctuary of the Justice League before the Joker’s assault on it led to our relocation to the Watchtower. We're calling it into service again as your base of operations. Since you six are determined to stay together and fight the good fight you'll do it on League terms.” Batman walks from the center of the room before continuing with “Red Tornado volunteered to live here and be your supervisor. Black Canary's in charge of training. I will deploy you on missions.”

A gleam of hope comes from Robin’s sunglasses-covered eyes as he speaks up with “Real missions?”

Batman respectfully responds with a “Yes, but covert enough to avoid arguments with the rules of our UN Charter.”

Flash follows up with “The League will still handle the obvious stuff like international crises and superterroist attacks. There's a reason we run around having these big targets on our chests: to keep hope among the public.”

Aquaman continues the conversation “But Cadmus proves that the bad guys are getting smarter and capable enough to hide from the authories. Batman needs a team that can operate on the sly and be the authorities where nobody else can be.”

Green Lantern follows up with “And since you showed us what you were capable of during the Cadmus incident, we decided the six of you are worthy of being the founders of that team. Aside from being obligated to send weekly reports to the League and having a few members accept the mission requests we make, you’ll have full authority to manage the team as you see fit.”

Martian Manhunter speaks up somewhat reluctantly “Just to make sure you understand, you will be sent on missions where League support is usually _not_ an option. One wrong move and it could be the difference between life or death, success or failure. Do you understand the trust we have in you?”

All of us proteges tense up as the words get driven into our skulls but the mood in the room increases as we get the second message from Martian Manhunter: We believe you are just as capable as we are.

After processing this for a bit, Aqualad proudly states to us “Today is the day.”

Kid Flash smiles and does a thumbs up. “You said it, brother!”

Miss Martian does an awkward smile and follows it up with a semi-awkward and enthusiastic “Yaaaaaay!”

Robin butchers the English language and shouts out “Let’s make sure to stay whelmed, guys.”

Superboy, in what can be described as happy apathy, goes “Hooray.”

Seeing the mood in the room, I go “Seems like we’re gonna change the world.” and Kid Flash responds with “You know we are!”


	4. Housewarming Party

**Mount Justice, United States**

**July 18, 2010 10:52 EDT**

<Recognized: Chimera B-0-4>

As I walk in the cave wearing nothing but a black shirt, blue jeans, black shoes and a green jacket with the number 10 in a black circle, I take a look around the training room, seeing nothing but the ‘holodeck’ (as I’ve taken to calling the training computer to everybody’s confusion), the large metal tube that I think is a computer and the hatch accessible only by flight.

A _vworp vworp vworp_ comes from my cell phone. Checking it, I see that I got a text from John Stewart saying “At Mt. Justice’s medbay with Superboy. Come ASAP.”

Putting my phone away, I bump into M’gann wearing her civilian clothes that she wore during her stay at my house. “Ezekial! What’s with the jacket?”

“It’s something that reminds me of my favorite cartoon back home.”

M’gann nods slowly as she gets the hidden message of _I’m wearing something Ben Tennyson wore because I thought it was funny._ I knew that explaining the truth to someone close to my age (even if it’s on a technicality, Martians apparently age three times slower than humans so M’gann’s actually 48 years old by Earth’s standards) would help with explaining the truth to the rest later, so I told M’gann about two days in after we got the cave as our base of operations. After all, she knew a part of it so why not let her know the rest?

“Anyways, what are you doing here right now? I thought you would be here later!”

“I was wondering if you know where the medbay is? I was told to meet Superboy and Lantern Stewart there to see if we can identify the problems with Superboy’s powers.”

M’gann nods with understanding. “Follow me.”

A few short minutes later, I see a very futuristic medbay equipped with enough medical supplies that would make a doctor at a low end hospital green with envy usually felt only by Lex Luthor against Superman. On a medical bed is Superboy, with John Stewart being right next to him.

M’gann does a flourish of her arms. “Well, here it is. I’ll be back at the training room to wait for everybody else. I guess I’ll see you there?”

“Yeah, I’ll see you there.”

The two take a look at me and Lantern Stewart smiles very briefly and faintly. “Glad to see you here, Zeke. How’s life?”

“It’s not too bad. The therapy sessions are going well, the startup’s worth the effort, and crime’s down in the sections of Coast City that I patrol in under supervision.”

“Good to hear that.” Stewart turns to Superboy (who is wearing a black jacket over one of his Superman shirts and jeans) before returning to me “Now, shall we begin?”

An impatient Superboy goes “Of course!” in a tone that reminds me of Raul Julia.

Without further prompting, a green rectangular light shoots out of the Lantern ring and goes up and down Superboy’s body before disappearing. After a few seconds, a green tinted one to one scale model of Superboy’s interal workings shows up. While most of the body matches with the limited amount of human physiology/anatomy that I know of, there are two things that would be out of place: the organs responsible for Kryptonian powers and what appears to be a secondary nervous system attached throughout the entire boy.

I’m not the only one to notice it, as Superboy points out the secondary nervous system. “What is that? That doesn’t match with what I know of Kryptonian anatomy.”

Stewart ponders the subject for a few seconds before doing _something_ with the ring. After a few more seconds of pondering, he speaks up. “That appears to be an artificial nervous system designed to regulate Superboy’s powers. As you can see here,” The model zooms to a section on the brain that I guess is the part managing pleasure “It’s hooked up to the hypothalamus. From what I can guess based on the cellular structure of the limiters, it’s designed to temporarily stimulate this area to give you an addiction over time whenever you disable the limiters through a certain chemical compound.”

Wait, so Cadmus _deliberately_ implanted limiters as a secondary contingency in the event that they lost control to ? Let’s see here, who was involved with Superboy’s conception who’s capable of such long-term planning? Suddenly, an idea comes to me. Lex Luthor. Before I voice my thoughts, Superboy beats me to the punch.

“Is there any way that we can destroy it?”

Stewart ponders the question a bit. “Hmm, I’m not sure. It could be possible, but this is a unique case that will need discussion.”

I think this situation over and ask “What if we overwhelm the limiters?”

“I’m sorry?”

“You heard me. What if we give Superboy a Solar Converter suit that turns the Sun’s ultraviolet rays into the ultraviolet rays of a blue-yellow sun?”

Stewart muses on the idea for a bit. “Hmmm, that could work. But if I may ask, why not pure blue sunlight?”

“If I’m correct, then blue-yellow sunlight will destroy the limiters without making Supes here much more powerful than Superman with continued exposure, ‘merely’ more powerful. The difference is semantics and the fact that blue sunlight increases Kryptonian powers to unmanageable levels.”

“Will there be any problems?”

“The only problem is that I’m theorizing based on a limited pool of knowledge and that I would require further knowledge and testing before jumping to conclusions.” Translation: Give me everything I’m allowed to have about the topic and contact Batman to tell him that I’m going to do something that could blow up in our faces if worst comes to worst.

Stewart nods his head in agreement. “Alright, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Glad to hear it. Anything else?”

I need to think of a way to get him to check Superboy’s DNA. Then all of a sudden, it hits me. “Can you do a DNA scan? I think it’s best to see if there’s going to be clone degradation or something similar down the line.”

“The ring already scanned his DNA, I just didn’t look over the results.”

A crossed eyebrow is all Superboy does to express his curiosity. “Shouldn’t you have done that already?”

“I’m doing that as we speak. Hmmm, it appears half of your DNA is human. Now, let's see who’s the donor.” As he finishes that, Stewart’s face goes from curious to resigned surprise.

Superboy grows impatient. “What?”

“Give me a moment, I’m just double checking to see who human donated their DNA to form your human half.”

We wait for a few seconds until Stewart’s face looks like he’s done with this shit “Lex Luthor is your human father.” Huh, called it.

A mixture of horror and concern crosses Supes’ face. “...What?”

“That’s what the scans say.”

“How come?”

I discuss my theory on what happened. “Best guess? Cadmus tried cloning a pure Kryptonian earlier and failed, so when they attempted to do so again, they asked the higher ups to donate their DNA and Lex Luthor responded by giving them his so that he can get a Kryptonian child.”

“So, am I destined to turn evil?”

I put a comforting hand on Supes’ shoulder. “Look, don’t believe in Lamarck’s stupid theories. You are _not_ your human ‘father’. You’re already better than him.”

John then speaks up. “I agree. Actions speak louder than words, and what you did proved you’re better than Luthor.”

“...Thanks, guys.”

“Now, if you excuse me, I have to get going. I need to report this to Batman.”

“Right. Tell him I said hi.”

A smirk crosses Stewart’s face. “Will do.”

And with that, Stewart leaves the room and presumably the mountain. I ask a somewhat brooding Superboy “Do you want to head to the training room to run into the rest of the team?”

A somewhat interested shrug is all I get. “Sure.”

We walk up there and stand near a holoscreen alongside Kaldur and M’gann that seems to be tracking Red Tornado. All of a sudden, one of the Zeta Tubes starts up and the ever so familiar voice of the computer speaks up. <Recognized: Robin B-0-1, Kid Flash B-0-3>

The Zeta Tube dies down and we see Robin wearing sunglasses, a green turtleneck, a black jacket and black pants being joined by Wally wearing a red jacket, yellow long sleeved shirt, and black pants. There seems to be something else going on as the greatest DC bromance rushes up towards Kaldur. Robin starts off with “Did you ask him?”

Wally follows up the line of questioning. “What did he say?” If I’m correct, then everybody here’s impatient for a mission. Can’t believe I used to be like that before forcing myself to learn patience.

As always, Kaldur calmly replies to this outburst. “He is arriving now.”

In response to this news, Wally friendly punches Robin in the chest while shouting “Then what are we waiting for?”, before running off to the wall opposite the Zeta Tubes.

Stopping at the entrance, we wait as the ramp falls down before we walk outside to see Red Tornado landing on the ground. An enthusiastic “Red Tornado!” from Wally is all we need to greet him.

Red Tornado takes one look at us. Stoically, he moves his head towards, implying he wants to talk. “Greetings. Is there a reason you intercept me outside the cave?”

Kaldur replies with “We hoped you have a mission for us.”

“Mission assignments are The Batman’s responsibility.”

This time, Robin speaks up with “But it’s been over a week and nothing-”

One of Red Tornado’s hands is raised in the stop gesture. “You’ll be tested soon enough. For the time being, simply enjoy each other’s company.”

Kaldur objects firmly, telling Red Tornado “This team is _not_ a social club.”

“No, but I am told social interaction is an important team building exercise. Perhaps you can keep busy by familiarzing yourselves with the cave.” And with that, he gets the final word by walking towards the Zeta Tube.

Wally punches Robin in the shoulder, mockingly repeating the words “Keep Busy” as he does so. Robin angrily replies with “Does he really think we’re falling for this?”

I see an opportunity present itself. “I’m not even sure if he even has a plan to trick us with.”

“Not. Helping.”

A happy expression appears on M’gann’s face. “Maybe I can find out if I read his mind. Chimera, mind turning into Upgrade for me?”

“Sure.”

Sensing the crazy idea about to occur, I activate the Omnitrix and select Upgrade. The core pops up, and I push it down gently in order to guarantee success (I have no way of knowing if Azmuth was true about what happens if you slam on the core, but I’m not risk breaking this very advanced piece of technology). Immediately after, I feel M’gann’s telepathy touch me for a brief second as something best described as psychic static enters my mind before quickly retreating.

M’gann sighs due to what I assume is the same psychic static. “I thought that would work.”

A curious Robin speaks up. “What would work?”

This time, I speak up. “I guess M’gann wanted to use her telepathy in conjunction with Upgrade’s technorganic nature in order to read Red Tornado’s ‘mind’, only to fail _because_ of said technorganic nature. Had I known about that, I wouldn’t have followed up on the plan.”

The scientific genius in Wally starts up. “What does Upgrade do again?”

“The Galvanic Mechamorphs-which is Upgrade’s species-can merge with technology and shape it to suit their needs. In addition, he can stretch somewhat like Plastic Man and shoot a laser out of their eye.”

“Why didn’t you merge with Red Tornado then?”

“For two reasons: One, I’m not entirely sure if it would work, him being a sentient AI and all that. Two, If it did work, then it would be considered abuse of exotic abilities and/or technology against a _League Member_ and I don’t wanna explain myself to Batman why I did it.” With that said, I slam on the Omnitrix to detransform.

“Oh.” A flirtatious smile crawls up Wally’s face as he moves towards M’gann. “So, uh, you know what I’m thinkin’ right now?”

Robin bickers back with “We all know what you’re thinkin’ right now.” before elbowing Wally back. Karma in action, folks.

“Ow.”

Aqualad sarcastically responds to everything going on. “And now we tour the clubhouse.”

M’gann tells us “Well, Superboy and I live here. We can play tour guides.” to which Superboy shoots down the idea. “Don’t look at me.”

Wally continues his failed flirting attempts. “We won’t. A private tour sounds soooo much better.”

Odd, I never recalled Wally being this much of a flirt. Granted, most of what I know of him from the comics is from his Flash days, and most of them are the married ones. I go to Robin and ask him “Is he always like this?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

Kaldur interrupts Wally’s flirting session and everybody else’s reactions to it. “Team building. We’ll all go.”

We all turn to the ramp as M’gann begins the tour. “This would be the front door…”

**Mount Justice Back Entrance**

**July 18, 2010 11:39 EDT**

As we arrive near the end of the tour, M’gann finishes her role as a tour guide while we bask in the natural beauty of the ocean. “And this would be the back. The cave is the entire mountain.”

Wally then takes over M’gann’s role as the tour guide when we decide to head back into the hangar. “The League decided that using the Justice Society’s old headquarters wouldn’t be practical due to its status as a monument in New York City and their desire for secrecy. So, they decided to look for a way to hide a bunker in a sparsely populated area. One search later they found the future Mount Justice and covertly bought it from the US Government.”

It’s at this point Superboy asks “How did they buy a mountain?” to which I wittly reply with “Batman. He can do anything once he puts his mind to it.”

Wally continues his little spiel. “It was hollowed out and reinforced by Superman and Green Lantern in the early days of the League.”

“Then why abandon it for the Hall of Justice?” Superboy asks.

Kaldur explains tensely. “The cave’s secret location was...compromised.”

“So they traded it in for a tourist trap? _Yeah_. That makes sense.”

Panic crawls onto M’gann’s face as she puts her hand on her chin in a frightened expression. “If villains know of the cave, we must be on constant alert!”

Robin, ever the master of language, reassures M’gann while putting his hands on hers. “Relax. The bad guys know we know they know about the place, so they’d never think to look here.”

I sigh and tell M’gann “We’re hiding in plain sight.”

A somewhat confused expression crosses M’gann’s face. “Ah, that’s much clearer.”

Before we can finish the tour, Supes sniffs the air twice before alerting us. “I smell smoke.”

“My cookies!” And with that, M’gann flies to the kitchen. We all follow her as fast as we can. Once we arrive in the kitchen, we see her use her telekinesis to open up the oven and move the tray of burnt cookies onto the countertop. “I was trying out Grammy Jones’ recipe from epsiode 17 of-” an awkward chuckle rings throughout the kitchen “Never mind.”

While Robin tries to cheer her up, Supes, Aqualad and I see Wally wolfing down several burnt cookies. Curious, I ask him “Won’t eating those burnt harm you?” to which Wally sheepishly replies “I have a _serious_ metabiolism problem.”

“I can relate to that. Using Fastcat makes me want to compete in a buffet eating contest. It’s gotten to the point that I’ve asked for boxes of your calorie dense bars.” I still remember that one time where I had to outrun Speed Demon across states to put him behind bars. Long story short, I’m now banned from The Grand Buffet in Reno, Nevada (as Chimera, of course) for eating a good chunk of their entire stock they had for the day.

Kaldur goes into friendly mode and tells M’gann “It was sweet of you to make any.”

“Thanks, Aqualad.”

“We’re off duty. Call me Kaldur’ahm. Actually, my friends call me Kaldur.” So, we’re beginning to share our identities then? Well then, I think I’ll reveal mine.

Wally introduces himself with “I’m Wally.”

“Mine’s no secret. It’s M’gann M’orzz. But you can call me Megan.”

“My name’s Ezekial.”

M’gann takes a look at where Superboy is. “Don’t worry Superboy, we’ll get you a name.”

I sense an opportunity here. “How about we call you Connor? If you like it, that is.”

Superboy ponders the idea. “Sounds right for some reason. But why Connor?”

“It was the first thing to pop into my head.”

“It’s a nice name.” M’gann points out.

The silence in the room grows until Kaldur asks “Does anybody have any other ideas on what we should do? Because I am at a loss for conversation topics.”

“I know what we can do. Quick, follow me!”

Reluctantly, we do so and follow her into an elevator. As she hits a button, M’gann theatrically goes. “I have a surprise to show you all.”

The doors open up into the hangar and we see a large red egg. “It’s my Martian Bioship!”

“Cute. Not aerodynamic, but cute.” As Wally demonstrates that he fits the stereotype of scientists in pop culture, M’gann chides Wally by going “It’s at rest, silly. I’ll wake it.” Almost immediately after, the red egg morphs into a fleshy spaceship. “Well, are you coming?”

Despite my comrades' hesitance in doing so, I smile and walk into the spaceship. As we head to the cockpit, the inside morphs and generates five passenger seats and a pilot’s seat. As we all sit down, a “Strap in for launch” is given to everybody present. Sitting on a chair, I squirm a bit as the seatbelts suddenly grow on me.

“Red Tornado, please open the bay doors.”

The bay doors open and the bioship flies out at incredible speeds, barrel rolling towards the mainlands.

Astounded, Robin goes “Impressive!”

“S-she sure is...” A lovestruck Wally agrees while making googly eyes at M’gann. “I-i mean the ship, which like all ships, is a she.”

I flash a smirk at Wally. “Smooth going there.”

“Dude!”

Before our bickering can grow, Robin changes the topic. “Hey, how ‘bout showing us a little bit of martian shapeshifting?” A subtle nod is all we receive before M’gann shifts into a Rule 63’d Robin. M’gann spends a few seconds posing before turning into a Rule 63’d Kid Flash.

Wally takes one look at his genderbent self and asks “Is it wrong to think that I’m hot?”

Just as he says that, M’gann turns into a rule 63’d version of me in my Chimera uniform. What snarky reply I have disappears, replaced by “N-no, not really.”

The rest of the team applauds M’gann, who shifts back to normal. “Impressive,” says Kaldur, “but is it possible for you to shift into the opposite gender? Being limited to one gender is limiting when it comes to missions.”

A sheepish grin crosses M’gann’s face. “Boys are tricky to change into.”

Sup-Connor continues the questioning.“And the clothes?”

“They’re organic like the ship. They respond to my mental commands.”

Wally, determined to put his flirting attempts behind him and asks a question we all have on our mind. “Can you do that ghosting through walls thing Manhunter does?”

“Density shifting? No, it’s a very advanced technique. I asked Uncle J’onn if Ezekial could help given that he has a Martian form, but he rejected it-Uncle J’onn, I mean-saying something about ‘Ezekial’s martian form is something you should not witness’, whatever that means.”

Ah crap. Why did she have to say that? Suddenly, five sets of eyes shift their vision onto me. Connor asks on behalf of M’gann “What happened, Ezekial?”

I scratch the back of my head and mutter while I think of a good excuse, only to fail. Seeing no other option, I decide to distort the truth a bit. “Well, you see, it turns out that Martian DNA and the Omnitrix interact weirdly with each other. So when I turn into my Martian form, I gain a power that other Martians would deem ‘Lovecraftian’. Fortunately, I decided not to turn into my Martian form until I had proper tutelage in the mental arts as I was afraid of what I could do without proper training.

_Unfortunately,_ I didn’t know about the Omnitrix-induced changes done to the Martian sample at the time. So, when I turned into my Martian form-who has not been named yet-I instinctually set myself on fire by my own unique power and I didn’t feel a thing. When J’onn saw it, he got scared and made it a joint Team/League mandate that I can only use my Martian form if I either got permission from a League founder or their successors, if the situation at hand is desperate enough for me to use it, or if I get permission from the team’s leader, who _cannot_ be me.”

As I end my story, I see the horrified looks the rest of the Team have in their eyes. I send a brief telepathic message consisting of _I’ll explain what_ ** _actually_** _happened later_ to M’gann. She replies with _You’d better._

Before I get interrogated more intensely, a _beep beep beep_ comes from the pilot’s console. M’gann hits the answer button. “Red Tornado to Miss Martian. An emergency alert has been triggered at Happy Harbor Power Plant. I suggest you investigate covertly. I’m sending coordinates.” _Whirrrrr-click!_

M’gann takes one look at the flight… computer? I should really work on the terminology used for this. “Recieved. Adjusting course.”

Robin scoffs. “Tornado’s keeping us busy again!”

An optimistic “Well, a simple fire led us to Connor, so who knows what an alert would bring?” from M’gann cheers us up.

One look at the left window shows a tornado headed straight for us. “Umm, guys? Incoming!”

Despite Miss Martian’s best efforts (we’re in a tornado, so it’s best to call everybody by their codenames seeing that being in a tornado would likely only happen in a mission), we get sweeped up into the tornado. Not how I expected this day to go, but I’ve learned to roll with the punches ever since I woke up several universes from home.

Some deft manuvering from Miss Martian results in the Bioship breaking free from the tornado and landing in the parking lot, which is oddly a safe distance away from being affected by the tornado’s vacuum.

Without further prompting, a hole opens up in the floor of the Bioship and we all jump into the great unknown. Or rather, the Happy Harbor Power Plant parking lot.

“Robin, are tornadoes common in New England?” A cautious Aqualad asks. Seeing that we got no answer, we turn to him to ask him personally only to see nothing there and the sound of giggling coming from around us. With that said, I ask the only reasonable question on my mind.

“How is that even _possible_?!”

An I’m-done-with-this expression crosses Kid Flash’s face. “He’s trained by Batman. What did you expect?”

As the giggling grows louder, the windows of the power plant get blown out. Seeing no other place for Robin to be, we head inside the power plant.

Inside, we see a Robin lying by a wall, with no visible external injuries. As Superboy asks Robin about our attacker, I decide to take a look at him to see what we’re up against: A red robot with blue wires attached to his arms. Save for his blue eyes, blue tubes and brown scarf, red and black are adorned all over his body in a stylized pattern. Wind moves all around him in the form of a mini tornado. He takes one look at us. “My apologies.” Apologies for what? Robin’s commentary? “You may address me as Mister Twister.” As he finished his introduction in that bold robotic tone of his, two tornadoes suddenly appear from his arms.

Superboy tries to push despite the force of the tornadoes. Despite his best efforts, Mister Twister changes the direction of the tornadoes to knock him into a wall. Seeing no other option, I decide to turn into Brainstorm. Switching the Omnitrix from disguise mode to active mode, the digital watch detailing the time right now turns into a minimalist green hourglass. I put two fingers on the touchscreen and the all too familiar dial with five faces pop up. I move the slot away from Fastcat and onto Brainstorm, confirming my choice with the press of the ‘lock in’ button. The dial pops up, and I push it down, bracing for the mental changes. God, how I hate those.

Immediately, my hands morph into claws that belong on a crab. My brain grows 17 times bigger in size and generates several technorganic growths that would fit on an alien supercomputer. My skull grows in size as well and breaks up into three openable sections. My eyes grow in size, while the rest of my face adjusts to that of a crab’s. Various bony spikes grow all around and my legs turn into a lump for lack of a better word, with four two joined crab legs growing out of it. A green and black triple striped neckbrace with the Omnitrix appears, completing the transformation. “ **Brainstorm!** ”

Forthwith, I inaugurate my breakdown into our assailant. It appears our assailant is recently synthesized and as such, incognizant of what greater empiricsm with his abilities would give him. He also has some additional generators than what is required, perhaps some sort of electrokinetic based weaponry? In addition, the reaction time is slower than expected. Presumably he is controlled by a pilot? In conclusion: our assailant is a robot suit piloted by somebody familar enough with the principles of Morrow’s work to be able to recreate it, if not augment it with their access to more cutting edge technology than what is procurable in the mid-20th century.

With that done, I deviate my attention to the attack patterns. Kid Flash attempts to do a front hamstring, only to fail due to an aerokinetic strike launching him out of the facility and into the forest. Miss Martian and Aqualad run to avenge our comrade, only for an aerokinetic burst to displace them. In conclusion: our assailant is far too reliant on his powers to fight.

I glance at Robin and motion for him to arrive nearby. “We need to incapacitate our foe. Pray tell, are you in possession of anything capable of generating an electromagnetic pulse?”

“W-what?! Why would I have it in my utility belt?” I unfold my skull and generate a small storm of electricity before intimidating Robin. A dishonorable tactic, but a necesscary one needed to curb Robin’s uncooperativeness.“We do _not_ have the opulence of squabbling. Now, hand it over.”

“Fine.” With a deft gesture, Robin unpacks his utility belt and hands me a low-voltage miniturized EMP, just enough to send any and all computers into rebooting.

Using my neuroelectrokinesis, I reprogram the circuitry to amplify the voltage of the apparatus at the cost of permanently frying its. Once finished, I activate it. Per my calculations, our robotic assailant will be incapacitated for approximately 8.2349 seconds, giving us a small window of opportunity. Without hesitation, I begin a barrage of lightling on the mysterious figure that lasts 7 seconds.

After the barrage of lightning is over, our assailant recovers from his immobile position. He takes one look at me and announces “Impressive. While I was expecting a _real_ hero to show up, you exceeded all expectations I have of you Chimera. Not that it will do you any good.”

With that last statement hanging in the air, I brace for impact as Mister Twister generates a vortex strong enough to absorb me in. I try to strategize a way out of this twister only to remember I am in possession of an Omnitrix, one of the most powerful devices to ever exist in all of creation. With a sudden slam of the dial, I transform into Hawkdown and fly out of the vortex before looking at Mister Twister to give him an ultimatum. “If you think you can succeed, if you can get what you want, if you get to see tomorrow without any consequences for this, then you are sorely mistaken.” I love the opportunities I get to flex my theatrical side.

All I get in response is a haughty “We shall see.”

Hmmm, what would the Doctor do? He would show the soon-to-be-defeated victim just why they shouldn’t mess with them or their friends. But what do we do? Brainstorm’s analysis gave me some information, but not enough to get stuff like behavioral patterns and other useful information. I take a break from my thoughts to focus on my opponent.

“Have you no adult supervision other than Chimera? I find his callousness for your safety quite disturbing.”

“Well, we hate to see you disturbed. Let’s see if you’re more turbed once we kick your can!” Leave it to Robin to make a witty retort and butcher the english language while doing so. As if on cue, Miss Martian reaches out with her telekinesis to destroy the pipe above Mister Twister’s head, creating a cover of steam that Superboy jumps through. Despite this, two concentrated wind bursts are generated to send Superboy flying straight into Miss Martian. Without a beat, Robin, Aqualad and I dodge the humanoid projectiles.

“Indeed. That was quite _turbing_. Thank you.” With that, our armored aerokinetic android flies away, with us in pursuit.

As we head outside, a rematch between Kid Flash and Twister ensues and ends with a ringout by Twister launching Kid Flash into the air. Before anybody can do anything, I fly over and catch him. “I got you!”

“Thanks!” With that done, I flap my wings and we both descend down to the ground. With that done, we all take a look at Mister Twister who looks like he’s wasting his time even being here.

“I thought you would have all learned your limitations by now.”

An angry Aqualad yells out “What do you want?!”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m waiting for the only other real hero here.” The only other ‘real hero’ here is Red Tornado, so what does he have in store for him? Reprogramming

Clearly panicking, Robin gives out an order. “Quick, read his mind!”

Miss Martian does the Pstandard Psychic Pstance for a few seconds before droopingher head a bit. “I’m getting nothing.” And with that, she beams back up. “Hello, Megan! Mister Twister is Red Tornado in disguise.” ...What?

While the rest of the Team looks hurt, I go to Miss Martian and go into my kind-yet-stern mode. “Care to explain your reasoning? Because from what I can tell, that is _not_ Red Tornado.”

“W-well, he’s a robot who can control wind. Why do you think he’s not Red Tornado?”

I hold up four fingers. “One: Red Tornado’s tornadoes are _red_ in color, not grey. Two: Brainstorm’s analysis of Mister Twister told me about electrokinetic weaponry built in, which Tornado does not have. Three: There are various mad scientists capable of recreating and improving upon the technology that makes up Red Tornado. Four, and this is the most important part: Tornado wouldn’t destroy public property and risk lives without permission and planning!” With that done, the _beep beep beep_ of the Omnitrix’s timer rings out, and I turn back into human form.

“You really thought I was Red Tornado? Ironic. Can Tornado do this?” And with that, the crackle of electricity fills the air as I brace for an impact that never came.

I open my eyes and look up to see the camoflauged Bioship between us and Twister. “Fine then. I won’t deny that you children-and Chimera-have real power, but playing hide and seek with you will not help me achieve my objective, so stay concealed. If you confront me again, I will show _no_ mercy.”

As he finishes his speech by creating an electric fueled fist before flying away to Happy Harbor, everybody else looks up through the invisible force field protecting us from him.

“What happened?” Kid Flash asks.

“I placed the bioship between us.” Miss Martian deftly replies.

Superboy voices his displeasure by hitting a rock formation so hard it breaks, before turning to M’gann voice filled with anger. “And that’s supposed to make it right? You thought Twister was Red Tornado.”

Aqualad jumps to her defense. “She didn’t do it on purpose.” which is supported by me going “She reached what she thought was the most likely explanation through mere analysis. Besides, she only has four weeks compared to your two weeks, Robin’s four years, Kid Flash’s and Aqualad’s two years, and my three months. She’s bound to make some mistakes.”

And with that, Kid Flash speaks up. “Well, you are pretty inexperienced to the rest of us. Go hit the showers. We’ll take it from here.”

God, was I really this moronic and egotistical when I was around their age? No wait, I’m still around their age. Don’t answer that! “Stay, M’gann. We need to work as a team if we need to defeat Twister.”

“To be honest, I’m not sure we have a team.” Aqualad sulks.

“Now that’s just stupid. We all have our dreams of independence and respect, and you want to give it up after a minor failure?”

“We were given this opportunity because of an act of childish rebellion!”

“‘An act of childish rebellion’ that exposed that one of the top genetics laboratories in the United States-if not the world-were secretly planning to go to war against the League. If you can’t look into the eyes of adversary after a crushing defeat, then how are you going to be heroes like the League?”

The speech hits harder than I expect. I see Kid Flash shuffling his feet, Robin looking dejected, Superboy looking stoic, Miss Martian about to break down and Aqualad looking thoughtful, as if he wanted to say something that can’t be put into words.

Finally, Miss Martian speaks up. “Ez-Chimera’s right! We’re heroes. People are counting on us, so we can’t give up!” Why does M’gann remind me of Ochako Uraraka?

Kid Flash voices his concerns. “But how are we going to beat a guy who took five minutes to beat us and managed to shrug off an EMP?”

“Apparently, that was a low grade reusable EMP that merely rebooted computers instead of frying their circuitry.” My thoughts flashack to Brainstorm’s analysis and an idea begins to form. “Now that I think of it, I have the frame of a plan.”

“What is it?”

“Everybody here except for Miss Martian will fight Twister. Shortly into the fight, Miss Martian will shapeshift into Red Tornado and fight Twister-with Kid helping her by creating tornadoes to fight him-under the pretense that he doesn’t trust that we can handle him. Assuming everything goes right, Twister will incapacitate Miss Martian and try to reprogram her under the belief she’s the real deal. While he’s incapacitated, we go to town on him. However, there’s one catch.”

“Which is?”

“We’ll need Miss Martian’s telepathy to coordinate.”

“But it violates our privacy!” I hear Robin shout.

“Yes, but only if Miss Martian didn’t learn boundaries and human traditions that I taught her. We need to get used to it if we’re going to continue working as a team. So, what do you think?”

I get five smiles in response to the plan. “Alright, M’gann, fly a reasonably far distance away from Twister and change into Red Tornado. We need to make it believable.”

“Right! What about the rest of the team?”

I brush off her concerns. “Don’t worry about it! Sometimes the best plan is no plan at all.”

It’s at this point an impatient Kid Flash looks at me. “Well, what about us?”

“We’ll fight Twister until M’gann arrives. Once she does, we’ll go to different areas where our skills apply while pretending to be disappointed that Red Tornado sent us away. So, who’s with me?”

The sounds of agreement fills my ears. Who knows? Maybe this team thing will work out. As M’gann flies away, we run towards the twisters popping up.

“So, anything we should do?”

“Just don’t get hurt _too_ much or hurt others. Other than that, go nuts.”

A dangerous smirk crosses Superboy’s face. “Let’s show this guy why you don’t mess with the team!”

As we reach the street where Twister is, we see nothing but utter chaos. Car alarms are blaring, people are panicking and a twister tears up the shore, carrying boats into the town square while Twister looks on. “Certainly this will get the required attention.”

Kid Flash looks defiantly at the android. In a triumphant tone, he insults our attacker with “Well, you got ours full and undivided, _robot_!” practically cursing the last name out.

Much to Twister’s surprise, Kid runs up to him and kicks him back enough to make him off balance. “Did you really think you can beat me after your previous failed attempt?”

In the most blunt tone Kid Flash can generate, he responds. “Well, yeah.”

A cheeky little Robin goes “After all, you made such a disaster that we’ll have to turn it into an aster once we’re finished with you.”

I continue things with “We’re heroes for a reason, you know. And you’re about to see _why_.”

Aqualad ends things with “Surrender now, or else we’ll have to use force.”

“Oh? Don’t you remember how I managed to win against you?”

A smirk crosses Aqualad’s face. “We do, and we learn from our mistakes.”

Without any further prompting, Robin throws two exploding discs that Twister catches. As Twister catches them in the air, two explosions go off, generating some kickback and a smoke cover. That gets followed up by Aqualad using his hydrokinesis to shoot a beam of water at our opponent which gets blown away.

“Enough of this farce!” A hurricane picks up a boat. With a few sleight of hand gestures, said boat is moved towards us at alarmingly high speeds. While Robin, Aqualad and I move out of the way, Superboy just stands there and takes the shot.

In response to this, a twister is made and catches Aqualad, sending him back first into the town hall. Kid Flash tries running to Twister, but he too is caught in the twister and sent to Twister’s head. Before anything serious happens, Kid spins the opposite direction of the twister, cancelling it out and making him late for an appointment with the ground. Superboy catches him in time, but is put out of commission by a lightning strike.

Aqualad moves out of the way of the incoming Superboy and throws a boat’s motor at Twister to cover for Robin and Kid Flash who are moving to the boat I was hiding behind. They take one look at me and then one look at them.

Kid Flash turns to look at me. “What are you doing?”

“Waiting for the Omnitrix to recharge. I never bothered to invest in ranged weaponry, so until then, I’m out of my League, no pun intended.”

A grin crosses Kid Flash’s face. “Pun _totally_ intended.”

This time, Robin is the one to speak up. “If you ever need help with it, let me know.” He restates his point by getting his utility belt from his jacket sleeve and tightening it around his waist.

An annoyed Kid Flash takes a look at Robin. “You brought your utility belt?”

“Never leave home without it! First thing Batman taught me.”

“Yeah, right after don’t go to the bathroom without it.”

I jump to Robin’s defense. “Hey, you never know when somebody’s going to attack you in your own bathroom.”

“Really?”

“He works in Gotham! Anything can happen.”

As I end that comment, Miss Martian sends her telepathic message to us. _Guys! I’m currently far enough to make our ruse believable!_

“Well, that’s great but you need me to make the tornadoes.” Kid Flash whispers/thinks to Miss Martian.

_I know that! Which is why I need you to head to the center of the harbor. I’ll be landing there._

I head to the center with Aqualad and the rest without ever keeping our eyes off Twister. The familar sound of the Omnitrix’s recharge tone hits my ears, and the hourglass flashes green. Just before I activate the select menu, ‘Red Tornado’ shows up. “Hit the showers, boys. I was hoping you could handle this. Clearly, you cannot.”

Miss Martian’s voice rings throughout our minds. _How’d I do?_

_You did great!_ Thinks Robin, while he responds verbally “But we’ve got a plan now!”

“The subject is not up for debate.” We all fake walking to the mountain until Twister goes “I was beginning to think you were never going to show up.”

“I’m here now.” _Wally, I need tornadoes, NOW!_

_I gotcha, Megalicious._

A tornado is generated by Kid Flash’s Beyblade impression, and skillfully sent to Twister, who not only destroys it, but creates a twister of his own to counteract ‘Red Tornado’ which is destroyed.

“We are evenly matched, Twister.” _Wally, I need a big one!_ A large tornado is generated and sent towards Twister.

“No, we are _not._ ” He emphasizes his point by creating a concentrated blast of air and shoots several bolts of lightning. ‘Red Tornado is down’ while M’gann sends a message of _Get ready!_ “Now, remain still android.” Four plugs that used to be his fingers are sent to the head of ‘Tornado’. “The reprogramming won’t take long.”

_Now!_ Red Tornado’s head becomes Miss Martian’s, who snarkily replies “Longer than you may think.”

“No.” is all Twister can manage before he is sent back by telekinesis and pushed into Kid Flash’s tornado. The tornado sends Twister into Superboy, who punches him in the kidney area. I then transform into Construct, stretching my arms to grab Twister by the knees and mash him into the ground back and forth several times before throwing him into the water, where Aqualad awaits. An explosion happens, sending a quite literally disarmed Twister back to us, where Miss Martian rips off his other arm. Robin ends the fight by impaling two bladed discs into his chest that explode after a short while.

Twister rises to his knees, only to see us walk up to him like the second coming of the Justice League. The android’s chest opens and a fortyish brownhaired man in a green suit climbs out. “Foul, I call foul.” Seeing the fight is over, I hit the Omnitrix and detransform back to human.

Before anybody can do anything else, Miss Martian telekinetically lifts a rock and crushes the man with it. We all look at her in shock, with Robin yelling out “Don’t know how things are done on Mars, but on Earth we _don’t_ execute our captives!”

“Relax, I know what I’m doing.” Miss Martian then lifts the rock in response and the man is shown to be another android, with circuitry and wires on the ground. “That’s why I couldn’t read his mind.”

Kid Fla-Wally (Mission is definitely over now, so civilian names now) takes one look at the remains and picks an eye off the corpse. “Cool. Souvenir.”

I take one look at Wally and ask “Wouldn’t trophy be a better term?”

He ponders it over. “Yeah, you’re right.”

Kaldur walks up to me and says “If we ever decide to vote for leader, I recommend you for the role.”

A grumble of “Like you’ll ever be one.” from Robin catches my ears, which I shelve for now.

“No thanks, I don’t want to deal with managing you lot full time. I get enough stress from just being a hero. Besides, I’m literally not allowed to be the leader. Now then, let’s get these robotic messes somewhere more secure.”

Connor walks up to me. “I have a question to ask you.”

“Go ahead.”

“Why didn’t you just use Solarion to destroy the robot?”

“Because relying on one form would be detrimental to my growth. There’s over a million DNA samples in the Omnitrix and they all have purpose. Every single one of them. To deny them their chances to shine would be harmful for both them and me.”

Just as I finish saying that, the Bioship drops its camoflauge and opens a hole in its bottom. M’gann lifts the pilot robot up into the bioship with her telekinesis, flying with it as it rises into the ship. The rest of us jump up into the ship and pick our seats.

As the hole closes, a table is formed and the remains of the robot is placed on it.

Wally scratches his neck. “So, uhh, does anybody know what happened?”

Kaldur looks at the remains. “I assume that Mister Twister and its ‘pilot’ were designed to find Red Tornado and reprogram him for unknown reasons.”

I fidget around with my fingers. “But there’s something more to this. I’m not sure what, but I have a feeling that whoever’s behind this will return with a vengeance.”

Robin nods his head in an agreeing motion. “Right, so if we scan this technology, then we can get an idea on what to do.”

“That’s what I was thinking.”

M’gann clears her throat. “Alright, we’re here.”

As the bioship lands inside the hangar, the seatbelts unfasten and the door opens. M’gann lifts the robot telepathically into the mission room and places it down on the floor.

Without any prompting, a scanning table pops up and begins scanning to remains. As expected, Wally asks M’gann “How did you know that was there?”

“I live here, silly!”

“Right.”

When the computer finishes scanning the remains, I turn into Brainstorm to decipher the readings. As the ego change finishes, I glance at the results. Apparently, there was an audiovisual transmitter/reciever combo that ceased operations several minutes ago. Other than that, there is nothing of major concern within the detritus. The _scans_ themselves reveal that the automaton was manufactured using high-end parts that are untraceable. Created from scratch using raw materials?

“Is something the matter, Ezekial?” Kaldur asks.

I respond in Brainstorm’s scottish accent. “This automaton raises more queries than solutions. Who manufactured it? Do they have access to Morrow’s work? Where was the transmitter sending a signal to? Why was Tornado the target? Was Twister a prototype? Are there more out there?”

This time, Wally speaks up. “Can’t you figure out who it is based on the info?”

“Unfortunately, my deductions require facts behind them. The deductions based on the automaton only gives me enough information to create a background that could be applied to a few hundred mad scientists in the best case scenario _,_ and several thousand in the worst case scenario. We need to wait for another attack by the same perpetrator in order to get more useful data, but that is months away if said perpetrator is smart enough to avow the adversity he is generating.”

“Sooo...Who’s going to inform Red Tornado?”

“I shall. I have made the observations, so it is only fitting that I should report them to our supervisor.”

“Supervisior?”

“Would you prefer ‘babysitter’ to refer to Red Tornado?”

“Supervisor it is then.”

With a quick press of the buttons, I summon Red Tornado. “There. I have sent a signal to muster Red Tornado to our place of arrival.”

The shuffle of feet in a specific pattern informs me that Robin is moving closer to me and is about to make questions, doubtless about my remarks with at least one butchering of the english language.

“So, how are we going to preflex this mastermind?”

“Did you not hear my previous discussion of the topic? We _cannot_. There are far too many variables in this situation to gain anything that can actually identify this mastermind. Had M’gann not smashed the automaton with a rock, I would have used facial recognition software to narrow down the list of potential subjects.”

M’gann rubs the back of her neck, deep in thought. “Sorry about that.”

“It is okay for now. Next time, please do _not_ ruin any androids beyond repairs and forensic detective work.”

It’s at this point the mysterious hatch above us opens and Red Tornado glides down using a self-generated ruby tornado. “What requires my attention?”

“Our assailant and the truth behind Mister Twister.”

“Explain.”

“Of course. Would you like it to be as brief and sufferable as possible?”

“Preferrably so.”

With that, I detransform back into human. “Sorry about that. All Cerebrocrustaceans-that’s Brainstorm’s species-have narcissism issues, a need to use long words, and a lack of restraint when it comes to talking. Now, where was I?”

“You were going to give me a summary on the truth of Mister Twister.”

“Ah yes. Mister Twister is in fact, a mechanical suit with wind manipulation and electricity generation capabilites piloted by a remote controlled android. As far as I can tell, the main goal is to locate and reprogram you for some nefarious purpose. Unfortunately, due to the parts here being custom made from raw materials, as well as the fact that mad scientists are a dime a dozen nowadays, we can’t narrow it down to anything less than a few hundred people in the best case scenario. As much as I loathe to say it, we need another attack to get more useful information and said attack won’t happen until a few months from now.”

“I see.”

Connor steps up to Tornado. “So you didn’t show up to help because you were afraid?”

“No. This was your battle. I do not believe it is my role to solve your problems for you, nor should you solve mine for me.”

Kaldur steps up to our supervisor. “But you were targeted.”

“That is a risk of being a member of the Justice League. I shall file this in an incident report. You should consider this matter closed.” With that, Red Tornado walks away into the Zeta tube.

“Batman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter. They’d all have jumped in to fix things.”

“Guess if we’re going to have a bab-supervisor, a heartless machine is exactly what we need.” And with that, Robin scowls.

“Dude, harsh!” Wally chides Robin.

“And inaccurate.” Red Tornado stops and turns at us. “I _do_ have a heart. It is made of carbon-steel alloy. I also have excellent hearing.”

Robin forces a nervous chuckle. “Right. I’ll strive to be more accurate.”

I put my hand on Robin’s shoulder. “ _And_ more respectful.”

As everybody all walks to the showers, Wally voices his thoughts on something I’m unaware of. “Speedy was wrong. This whole team thing…”

“Might just work out.” Kaldur finishes for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a list of alien names for those curious:  
> 1.Upgrade  
> 2.CheMystery (Gutrot)  
> 3.Spidermonkey  
> 4.Greenhouse (Blossomed Swampfire)  
> 5.Brainstorm  
> 6.Construct (Bloxx)  
> 7.Fastcat (Fasttrack)  
> 8.Shockhenge (Shock Rock)  
> 9.Oceania (Overflow)  
> 10.Xenowolf (Benwolf/Blizwolfer)
> 
> 11.Solarion (Kryptonian)  
> 12.[REDACTED] (Martian)  
> 13.Hawkdown (Thanagarian)


End file.
